- DALLAS (AP) - Nearly 6 percent of a group of sexually active girls and
young women reported taking the drug Rohypnol deliberately, despite warnings
that it can make them vulnerable to rape, according to a study.
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- Rohypnol, or "roofies," is
known as a "date rape drug" because of cases in which women were
assaulted after someone slipped it into their drink. Users have likened
one tablet to drinking a 12-pack of beer.
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- Researchers at the University of Texas
questioned 904 women ages 14 to 26 who visited a Galveston family planning
clinic, and found that 5.9 percent - or 53 - said they had taken flunitrazepam,
the scientific name for Rohypnol, at least once. Six reported taking it
more than 20 times.
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- The study was reported Tuesday in the
journal Pediatrics.
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- The researchers and other experts said
they suspect women try the drug because it is cheap, produces a drunken-like
high and heightens the effects of other narcotics.
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- "The media has been very clear about
the dangers of this drug and yet teenage girls, particularly the ones we
studied, when they party and someone offers them something, they accept,"
said Dr. Vaughn Rickert. "They are really leaving themselves open
for assault."
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- Dr. Ron Charles, a professor at the University
of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, questioned the survey's
accuracy.
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- "I doubt that many people actually
know what Rohypnol is. There are many street drugs that can be perceived
as Rohypnol," he said.
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- Rohypnol is illegal in the United States
but prescribed in Mexico and dozens of other countries for severe sleep
disorders. In Mexican border towns, a tablet can sell for less than $1,
meaning young people in Texas can get Rohypnol cheaply.
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- Law enforcement agencies seized 194 pills
in Texas in 1992, and 41,600 in 1995.
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