Rohypnol

ROHYPNOL

By

Jenet

Rohypnol is a drug commonly known as the date rape drug. According to the article “Drug-Facilitated Date Rape,” by Erica Weir, Rohypnol is not a legal drug in the United States or Canada but it is legal in 62 countries in Europe, Africa, Latin American and the Middle East. It is one of the most commonly used sleeping pill or anti-anxiety drug (Benzodiazepine) in these countries. People can get Rohypnol by prescription. Its main function is to depress the central nervous system. Rohypnol is given t some patients before surgeries because it lowers blood pressure and that reduces bleeding.

A pharmaceutical firm known as Hoffmann-La Roche in the 1970s first developed Rohypnol. It was sold first to Switzerland as a sleeping pill in 1975. It was known to have fewer side effects than barbiturates until some scientists did more studies on the drug and found out that it has many of the same harmful side effects as barbiturates. It was also found to be very dangerous. Abuse of Rohypnol began in the 1970s in Europe at parties. Then in the mid 1990s, high school and college students began abusing it in the U.S. They are using them at dance clubs and raves. U.S. banned Rohypnol in 19997. In an article called “Rohypnol: Profile of the “date-rape drug” by Dominick A. Labianca, it was stated that Rohypnol is not sanctioned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a sedative hypnotic drug and is therefore neither produced nor marketed legally in the United States. People could face prison f caught with the drug. It also became illegal for people to bring the drug as travelers into the U.S. for their personal use. Even though U.S. banned the drug, Rohypnol has become widespread throughout the U.S. because people struggle or mail the rug into the country and distribute it.

Rohypnol has many street names. Some are circles, forget me pill, la rocha, Mexican Valium, mind eraser, R-2, roofies, roche, and roaches. This drug is not very expensive and it can be easily found. According to the article called “Rohypnol, The Date Rape Drug,” by Richard H. Schwartz and Andrea B. Weaver, tablets wholesale for about $ 1.00 and retail for about $ 4.00-$5.00 each. High school and college students use it because they think that if it is legal in other countries then it must not b...

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... when they passed out. Drugs are always going to be around but we need to keep on educating people and helping those who need help to quit their addiction. I have heard many abusers of drugs say that they want to quit but they do not know how or where to go to get the help that they need. We need more commercials on TV and more signs in schools so that people know where to go to get help or to remind them that what they are doing is harming them and others greatly.

Bibliography

Blachford, Stacey L. and Kristine Krapp, eds. Drugs, eds. Drugs and Controlled

Substances: Information for Students. USA: Gale Group Inc., 2003.

Dervarics, Charles. “Washington Update: New Bill Targets Date-Rape Drugs.” Black

Issues in Higher Education. 13 (1996): 5

Labianca, Dominick A. “Rohypnol: Profile of the ‘Date-Rape Drug” Journal of Chemical

Education. 75 (1998): 719.

Schwartz, Richard H. “Rohypnol, the Date Rape Drug.” Clinical Pediatrics. 37 (1998):

321.

Weir, Erica. “Drug-Facilitated Date Rape.” Candadian Medical Association. 165 (2001):

80