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Article

Rohypnol: Profile of the "Date-Rape Drug"

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Dominick A. Labianca

Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, Department of Chemistry, 2900 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11210-2889

J. Chem. Educ., 1998, 75 (6), p 719

DOI: 10.1021/ed075p719

Publication Date (Web): June 1, 1998

Abstract

Rohypnol is one of the benzodiazepines, the class of drugs that includes such popular sedativeâ€“hypnotic agents as Librium and Valium. Although marketed legally abroad, Rohypnol is illegal in the USA. Nevertheless, it is regularly smuggled into this country and has recently achieved notoriety here as a formidable chemical weapon utilized by rapists to overpower their female victims, many of whom have been selected from the high school and college social scenes. This article describes the criminal use of this central nervous system (CNS) depressant within a chemical context and emphasizes its pharmacological effects, mechanism of action, and physiological fate or biotransformation. Moreover, the article describes another drug that, unlike Rohypnol, has legitimate medical applications in the USA but has also been used by criminals to harm others under strikingly similar circumstances. This drug is lorazepam (Ativan), another benzodiazepine with sedativeâ€“hypnotic properties. A key message of this article is that the chemistry classroom is an ideal setting for promoting awareness among students of the dangers of some of the drugs that have been developed for otherwise beneficial, therapeutic purposes but which have also acquired a sinister character.