News / Education
Date Rape Drug: Victims Powerless
Date Rape Drug Rohypnol Facts
The Atlanta Recovery Center, a premiere drug addiction treatment center, gives information on this dangerous drug being used in clubs.
Flunitrazepam is a benzodiazepine, a drug with effects similar to diazepam (commonly known by its trade name, Valium®), that is used in other countries in the short-term treatment of insomnia. It is also used as a sedative hypnotic and in the operating room as a pre-anesthetic medication.
However, this drug is not approved by the FDA. It is produced and sold legally by prescription in Europe and Latin America. Since the drug neither is manufactured nor approved for medical use in the United States, but is readily available in pharmacies in Mexico, it is purchased, smuggled across the border and spread throughout the United States.
It can be purchased on the street as ‘roofies’ and its prices range from $2 to $30 depending on dosage and geographical location.
This drug can be devastating. People accidentally overdose on it; it is almost 10 times stronger than Valium®. It is used to commit sexual crimes against women in bars and clubs because it is easily slipped in a drink. After consumption, the woman normally gets temporary amnesia. Then the victim is not capable of remembering the attack or the attacker, and has thus been named “the date-rape” drug.
One user reports “It feels like you’re drunk, but you don’t get a hangover in the morning.” It lowers people’s inhibitions. It makes people have a false sense of comfort. Users report a “relaxed feeling.”
Despite the apparent benign nature of the drug, Rohypnol has many more adverse effect including decreased blood pressure, drowsiness, visual disturbances, dizziness, confusion, dependence, both physical and psychological; and overdose, resulting in excessive sedation, impairment of balance and speech, respiratory depression or coma and possibly death.
