Date-Rape Drugs

Written by HealthyPlace.com Staff Writer

The last thing you remember was sipping a drink at a party. Now you wake up in a strange place, possibly hours later, with a sense that you've been sexually assaulted. But no matter how hard you try, you can't remember exactly what happened. You may be the victim of one of a number of date-rape drugs.

Date-rape drugs are used to incapacitate you and make you vulnerable to sexual attack. They often leave you with no recollection of what happened to you while you were under the drug's influence. Health experts and law-enforcement authorities don't know exactly how often rapes involve use of such drugs. But these types of rape do happen. Help keep them from happening to you by learning more about what drugs are used in date rape and how to protect yourself from date or acquaintance rape

Drugs and rape: An old problem with a new face

Sexual predators have used alcohol and drugs to weaken their victims' resistance for centuries. Alcohol is the substance most commonly used for this purpose. Excessive alcohol consumption can induce blackouts and complete memory loss, while not necessarily impairing your ability to function.

Besides alcohol, at least 20 other drugs are used for purposes of sexual assault. Some of these include:

• Ketamine (Ketalan)
• Lorazepam (Ativan)
• Alprazolam (Xanax)
• Diphenhydramine (Benadryl)

Two drugs in particular - gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) and flunitrazepam (Rohypnol) - are commonly implicated.

In a 1999 study, researchers tested more than 1,100 urine samples from sexual assault victims in the United States and Puerto Rico. They tested individuals who they suspected may have been the victim of a drug-related rape. Four percent of the urine samples contained GHB and 8 percent contained benzodiazepines, a type of sedative that includes Rohypnol.

The many faces of GHB

GHB depresses your central nervous system. Legal medications that also work as central nervous system depressants are sometimes used to treat insomnia or anxiety. Such drugs include Ativan, Valium and Xanax.

Depending on how much GHB you take, effects can range from sleepiness and drowsiness to seizures and coma.

GHB was available in some health food stores in the late 1980s, where it was marketed as a sleeping aid and muscle builder. Due to reports of its harmful effects, the Food and Drug Administration banned its sale in 1990. Ten years later the government classified it as a "Schedule I" drug due to its potential for abuse and its use in date rapes. This is the most dangerous class of drugs, which have no medical use. Heroin, for example, is another in this group.

Despite being illegal, GHB is relatively easy to make, with recipes available on the Internet, and is produced domestically in America and smuggled in from other countries. It's well-known as a club drug among teens and young adults, since it also can make the user feel euphoric and intoxicated. It's sometimes referred to as liquid ecstasy, Georgia home boy, and cherry meth. According to 2002 statistics from the Department of Justice, 1.5 percent of high-school seniors reported using the drug recreationally during the past year..

GHB also is a common drug in sexual assaults for several reasons. It's colorless and odorless and comes in powder or liquid forms, which makes it easy to mix in water, punch and alcoholic drinks. It also acts quickly. Within 15 minutes of drinking it, you become sleepy and lose the ability to control your muscles making you vulnerable to an attacker.

This drug also often causes a type of memory loss called anterograde amnesia, which means you don't remember anything that happened during the time the drug was affecting you. These effects are even stronger when GHB is mixed with alcohol.

Rohypnol: A sleeping aid outside the United States

Rohypnol (ro-HIP-nul) is also a central nervous system depressant that causes drowsiness and muscle relaxation. According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, it's 10 times as potent as diazepam (Valium).

Rohypnol is sold legally in Europe and Mexico, where it's used as a sleeping aid, but it's not approved for manufacture or sale in the United States. In 1996, the Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Administration banned its importation. Nevertheless, smugglers bring it into the country, where it's commonly used as a club drug among high-school and college students and other young adults. Other names for it include roofies, roches and the forget-pill.