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February 18, 1997

What you should know about the Date Rape Drug

By EMILIE ADAMS

Awomanissitting with a group of her friends at a local establishment having a drink. They get up to dance and leave their drinks un- guarded. They come back to theirtablea few minutes later and resume drinking. The woman has only had one drink, but after twenty min- utes she starts behaving com- pletely drunk. Her speech becomes slurred, her vision blurry and hercoordinationis way off. She is drowsy and confused, notrecognizing her friends or where she is. She blacks out, and when she re- gains consciousness a day later she has no recollection of what happened to her the night before.

This womanhas fallen victim to a new drug being trafficked in North America called Rohypnol, alsoreferred to as the Date Rape Drug, roofies, rape, laroche, rib, R- 2 , rope and Easy Lay. Rohypnolismanufactured by Roche Pharmeceuticals in Mexico, South America, Eu- ropeand Asia. Itis bannedin Canadaand the United States. It is intended for use as a sleeping pill, butnowitis be- ing circulated and trafficked forillegal uses only- primarily to drug women, then sexually

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assault them.

Pills are the original manufactured form of the drug, but it is sold in liquid forms as well. A vial or pill sells foranywhere from $1 to $5. Rohypnol is most com- monly acquired in Mexico, thensmuggled across the bor- der. Although itisa banned substance, there is no law against the possession of the drug.

Rohypnol is ten times stronger than Valium. When

slipped into a drink, it is odourless, colourless and tasteless. Itcould be putina glass of water and you would not even know it was there. When the drug begins to kick in, the central nervous system is affected. The symptoms range from drowsiness and confusion, to comaandeven death. When mixed withal- cohol, the effects are enhanced and small dosescan resultina

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UPEI Women’ s Centre a

cheap high. Singer Kurt Cobain fellintoacomaamonth before his suicide when he combined the drug with cham- pagne.

Theeffectof Rohypnol can last from 6 upto 35 hours. During thetimethat the drugis being worked out of the sys- tem, the victim suffers from complete memory loss. This makes alleged incidents very difficult to prosecute because the victim has no memory of the attacker.and is unable to identify him. Many victims do not even realize that they have been attacked.

Do not think that it won’thappento you. There have been incidents of the date rape drug all over Canda, in- cluding PEI. A women in Summerside was having acof- fee with her husband when she began to exhibit some symptoms ofthe drug. Police believe that someone slipped Rohypnol into her coffee. There was an alleged rape involving the drug at a floor party at St. Mary’s University in Halifax. A fewmonthsago, aMcGillstudent wasatGert’s, a campus bar, with her boy- friend when she accepted a beer from a stranger. A few

If you have been raped, or sexually ; assaulted and need someone to Talk to call: ape

minutes later she was halluci- nating and exhibiting very drunk behaviour. It isa very frightening situation for all those involved.

Awareness is the best way to keep yourself from getting into one of these situ- ations.

If you are at a bar, do not leave your drink unat- tended, even for a moment. People have been known to use hypodermic syringes to squirt the drug into your drink when your back is turned for a few seconds. If you do leave your drink unguarded, getanewdrink. There is no way to tell whether or not someonehas putsomethingin it. Makesure you have some- one you trust with you, be- cause ifno onearound knows you, they can’ttell ifyouare drugged or drunk.

The most important thing torealizeisthat Rohypnol does exist in Canada and itis something for everyone, par- ticularly university students, to be concerned about.