Simply use the \Q escape.

if ($str =~ /\Q$pat/) { ... }
if ($str =~ /.\Q$pat\E./) { ... }
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Jeff[japhy]Pinyan: Perl, regex, and perl hacker, who'd like a job (NYC-area)
s++=END;++y(;-P)}y js++=;shajsj<++y(p-q)}?print:??;