I am passing this on at the request of a close friend who has seen what this
drug does.
Marie Davis
*******************
<<forwards deleated>>

Subject: The drug Rohypnol
 This is disturbing, scary - horrible stuff.  A colorless, odorless drug
which dissolves quickly into drinks and induces amnesia.  Increasingly
commonly used for rape, esp in college age crowds & bars (e.g. frat houses,
etc).  This is nasty.  But this Is current events, folks.  This is happening
now.  The DEA reported seeing a tremendous increase in the presence of this
drug in the US in February. Prevalent in South and Southwestern states.
Please distribute this widely - knowledge is power.

I wanted to verify this before broadcasting it.  Here is the DEA page, which
confirms the effects as described below:

http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/rohypnol/rohypnol.htm

I found several articles on this on the Web.  Here is one that relates to the
following story:

 http://www.emergency.com/roofies.htm

Remember, awareness is your best self defense.

1.  You DON'T need to take it with alcohol for the effects to work
2.  It doesn't take 1-2 hours for it to take effect...only 10 minutes.

Please take the time to read this whole thing and PLEASE forward it to
everyone you know.  If you are female, then I would be wary from now on about
accepting drinks from anyone you don't know well or know LONG enough to
trust.  For you guys out there, I'd tell your sister(s) about this drug and
how it could effect them.

Oh, another tip for the women...If you're going to accept a drink from
someone you've just met (like a date) then I'd try to make sure it's from an
unopened container and that you open it yourself.  If you must accept a drink
anyway, then I'd mention to him that you know *everything* about Rohypnol and
its effects.  I hope that would curb his desire to slip a "roofie" (slang for
Rohypnol) in your drink.
Anyway, here's the article:

RAPISTS SLIPPING VICTIMS MODERN-DAY MICKEYS

MIAMI-Imagine all the fears of parents whose daughters have hit dating age
packed into one white pill the size of a dime. It may be the mightiest Mickey
Finn ever concocted. And it is not the fiction of Sam Spade novels and
Humphrey Bogart movies.

These days, it costs about $3 at the high school water fountain.  It is
colorless, odorless and quickly dissolves in a can of Diet Coke. In about 10
minutes, it creates a drunk-like effect that lasts eight hours.  It enhances
the effects of alcohol, causing loss of inhibition, extreme sleepiness,
relaxation and - perhaps worst of all for its victims - amnesia.

The pill is made of a drug called Rohypnol (pronounced ro-hip-nol). Your kids
know them as "roofies."

And police are concerned - particularly about roofie rape.  In Broward
County, Fla., 10 men have been arrested on roofie-rape charges in the past
year.  The most recent came Feb. 1, when two brothers and a friend were
charged with repeatedly raping a 15-year-old girl after they secretly put a
roofie in her soft drink. A 26-year-old Broward County man who pleaded guilty
to roofie rape in a 1995 case - Mark Anthony Perez of Plantation - told
authorities he used it to rape as many as 40 women. The problem has not been
as prevalent in Dade County, where police departments reported a handful of
suspected sexual assaults related to roofies in the past six months.

A 17-year-old Coral Springs girl raped Jan. 7, 1996 while she was under the
influence of roofies lost 10 hours between having dinner with friends and
waking up in a strange hotel bed.  Police are investigating a 29-year-old
suspect who was at the dinner.

"Her panties were around her ankles and a condom next to her," said the
girl's mother.  "My daughter didn't know this guy.  She doesn't remember a
thing.  This man is a rapist and he's going around doing this to other
women," she said.  "I want people to know how dangerous this is."

College officials also note a concern on college campuses.
Reported sexual assault have increased and may be linked to Rohypnol.
 Officials estimate that this may just be the tip of the iceberg.  Since, the
victims suffer amnesia many women may have no idea that have been raped.

Rohypnol is a potent and hypnotic sedative used in some countries to put out
surgery patients.  They are prescribed as sleeping>pills in about 80
countries, but not the United States.  The emergence of the once-obscure
sedative has thrown police agencies for a loop.  Florida law officers have
seized tens of thousands of the pills in the past year. Rohypnol is also
easily available from Mexico and parts of Europe. In one raid, the pills were
packaged in vitamin bottles and labeled in Spanish.  They were shipped from
Colombia and distributed by two suspects, said sheriff's spokesman Jim
Leljedal.

It has proliferated to such a point that the Drug Enforcement
Administration and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement have joined
forces with police to have Rohypnol's status as an illegal drug enhanced to
make penalties equal to cocaine and heroin.

"It's just that we have a chance in law enforcement to get ahead of this
thing before it gets too out of control," said Cooper City police Capt. Jim
Harn, whose agency is investigating several roofie-rape cases.

The incident involving the 15-year-old from Cooper City happened in June at a
Sweet 16 party at the Merrimac Hotel on Fort  Lauderdale Beach. Charged with
her rape are brothers Sidney Harmon, 19, and Scott Harmon, 17, of Pembroke
Pines, and Moises Ventura, 18, of Miramar.  The Harmons' mother has said her
sons are innocent.  The Ventura family has declined comment.  According to
friends, Scott and Moises were inseparable friends who like to start fights
and cause trouble.  Sidney, who aspires to be a paramedic, is a quiet,
sensitive boy, friends say.

Erica Verriotto, 17, said she was good friends with all three boys for over
several years.  "Scott was kind of a troublemaker sometimes, you know?" she
said.  "Nothing really serious.  He used to like, start fights. You know,
yell at people who cut him off in traffic and stuff." "But Sid, no way," she
said.  "trust Sid no matter what."

Cooper City detectives say several other girls have come forward with similar
stories about the group of boys, but no charges have yet been filed.

 "A lot of times the guys don't think they've done anything wrong,"  said
Cooper City police Det. Kregg Lupo.  "This is not a rape in their eyes.  They
think if the girl is not awake or alert enough to say to say, `No,' it's not
rape."

Police say they were able to arrest the Harmons and Ventura primarily because
the rapes happened while the victim's best friend watched - an eyewitness.
 Another teen at the party said Scott and Moises bragged about slipping the
roofie into her soft  drink.

Other roofie-rapes are cases," said Dennis Nicewander, an assistant state
attorney in the Broward sex-crimes unit.  "Usually these victims don't
remember a thing.

"It's almost like the perfect crime,"  he said.  "Because they don't have to
worry about a witness testifying against them.  And don't think these guys
aren't figuring that out."
 The drug also has the potential to make rapists out of men who without the
drug might not commit the crime, he said. "Usually, they aren't the kind of
guys who would force themselves on someone for sex.  They seem to be the kind
of guys you'd see at happy hour with their buddies, the kind of frat-boy
mentality that thinks it's fun to get a girl drunk and have their way."
The drug also works it's way out of the human system usually within 24 hours,
he said, which makes any delay by the victim a problem. "Many of these kids
start out in a compromising position to begin with, then this happens to them
and they are scared and embarrassed and unclear as to what happened," said
Stan Peacock, a Broward prosecutor. "I have told my 17-year-old daughter
never to accept a beverage of any kind from anyone unless it is in a sealed
container that she opens herself," he said.  "Does that give you any kind of
an idea how concerned I am about it?"