Rohypnol is a highly effective sleep-producing drug. Some might suggest that it is too effective. Nevertheless, it is included among these entries because of its notorious reputation as a date-rape drug.
Flunitrazepine, a benzodiazepine related to Valium, was synthesized in the Roche Laboratories in Switzerland in 1972. It was marketed in Europe three years later and throughout many other countries in Asia and South America during the 1980s, most often bearing the trade name Rohypnol. It continues to be prescribed worldwide for the treatment of insomnia, but commonly with restrictions. Although Rohypnol was never approved for use in the United States, it has entered the country through illicit distribution channels with the common street name, “roofie.”
During the mid-1990s, its use as a date rape drug became widespread. When added to an alcoholic beverage, it produces deep sedation and anterograde amnesia, so the victim has no memory of the events that transpired, including the assailant’s identity, when under the drug’s influence. Moreover, Rohypnol tablets are normally white, odorless, and tasteless, and readily dissolvable in liquids. To make their presence more visible to potential victims, reformulated tablets contain an inert dye that turns blue in liquids. The Drug Induced Rape Prevention Act of 1996 in the United States established harsh penalties for the distribution of such drugs associated with violent crimes, including sexual assault.
Rohypnol has been used as a recreational drug by itself and with other drugs, such as marijuana (cannabis), MDMA/Ecstasy, and LSD. More ominously, it has been a tool for intentional overdose suicides, especially when taken with alcohol. Nirvana lead singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) used Rohypnol and champagne in his first suicide attempt. Weeks later, his self-inflicted shotgun wound proved successful.
SEE ALSO Cannabis (c. 3000 BCE), LSD (1943), Valium (1963), MDMA/Ecstasy (1976).
This image shows a man drugging a woman’s drink in a bar—a possible prelude to date rape.