Legislation Targets Drug Used in Date Rapes

Congress has begun considering legislation to toughen penalties for those found possessing the drug Rohypnol--better known as the “date-rape drug” because of its use by would-be rapists to incapacitate victims.

Rohypnol, the brand name for the drug flunitrazepam, is sold legally in 64 countries but has been banned in the United States since March. It can easily be slipped into a drink without changing the drink’s taste, odor or color. Once ingested, victims loose consciousness and wake hours later with little or no memory of what might have occurred.

The legislation would make possession of Rohypnol a federal crime and would mandate longer prison sentences and higher fines for anyone who uses it--or any other illicit substance--to drug someone for the purpose of committing a violent crime.

“This legislation marks the first time the use of controlled substances would be viewed as a weapon under the law,” Rep. Gerald B.H. Solomon (R-N.Y.) said in testimony before a Senate subcommittee.

The drug, produced by the Swiss pharmaceutical giant, Hoffman-La Roche, was introduced into the United States from Mexico, where doctors are permitted to prescribe it for people with sleeping disorders, anxiety and seizures, and where almost any American looking to purchase it could find a pharmacy willing to sell it without a prescription.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has reported that Rohypnol has become a problem in 26 states. Among those who testified Tuesday was Joy Diliello, a Jackson, Tenn., woman who had the drug dropped into her soft drink at a party, was raped and became pregnant.

Lisa Celestin of Coral Springs, Fla., said the drug “destroyed my life” when she was raped by someone who slipped the drug into her drink at a bar. “It’s the perfect crime in a pill.”

Rohypnol, purchased for pennies per capsule in other countries and resold in the United States for as much as $5, quickly caught on because drug traffickers found a ready market among men interested in sexually assaulting unsuspecting women and among drug addicts who believe that Rohypnol enhances the “high” that they receive from cocaine and heroin and cushions the “low” that often follows.

The DEA has logged more than 2,400 criminal cases involving Rohypnol and is seeking to classify it as a Class 1 drug, putting it in the same category as LSD, heroin and marijuana, and thus making the penalties associated with it more severe.

Carolyn R. Glynn, vice president of public policy and communications for Hoffman-La Roche, said that Rohypnol is “a prescription medication that is being misused and it doesn’t belong in the U.S.”