SURVEY FINDS VOLUNTARY USE OF DRUG IMPLICATED IN RAPES

Study Says Young Respondents Vulnerable To Assault

Nearly 6 percent of a group of sexually active girls and young women
report taking the drug Rohypnol intentionally, despite warnings that
it can make them vulnerable to rape, according to a study released
Tuesday.

"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,
lead author of the study published by the American Academy of
Pediatrics. "They are really leaving themselves open for assault."

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
questioned 904 women ages 14 to 26 who visited a Galveston family
planning clinic about their drug use and sexual history.

The authors said they studied sexually active women because of the
link between high-risk sexual behavior and illegal drug use.

Of those surveyed, 5.9 percent - or 53 - said they had taken
flunitrazepam, the scientific name for Rohypnol, at least once. Six of
the 53 reported ingesting it more than 20 times.

Eight percent of the total said they believed that Rohypnol or a
similar drug had been slipped into their drinks at least once, Dr.
Rickert said.

The study's authors and other experts said they suspected that women
experimented with the drug, known as "roofies" or "roaches," because
it's cheap, produces a drunkenlike high that some users have equated
to a 12-pack of beer and heightens the effects of other narcotics.

Dr. Ron Charles, an assistant professor at the University of Texas
Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, questioned the survey's
accuracy, noting that it's hard to pin down Rohypnol use.

"I doubt that many people actually know what Rohypnol is. There are
many street drugs that can be perceived as Rohypnol," he said.

Dr. Charles said GHB, another drug that has been implicated in
numerous sexual assaults across the country, is more prevalent in
Dallas. GHB is short for gamma hydroxybutyric acid, another odorless
and tasteless drug that can be mixed into drinks to cause
unconsciousness.

The study's authors concede its limitations. "Although we provided
accepted definitions and common street names to all drugs assessed, we
cannot be sure that those females identified as flunitrazepam users
did, in fact, use this drug," they said.

Almost unheard of at the beginning of the decade, Rohypnol was hardly
perceived of as a problem until its use in rapes became more widely
publicized.

Rohypnol is illegal in the United States but is prescribed in dozens
of other countries, including Mexico, to combat severe sleep
disorders. The Galveston researchers contend that Texas youth are "at
particular risk . . . because of proximity to Mexican border towns
where the drug can sell for less than $1 per pill."

Law enforcement agencies seized 194 pills in Texas in 1992. Texas
seizures soared to 41,600 in 1995, according to the Department of
Public Safety.

Most Drug Enforcement Administration seizures have been in Texas, said
Paul Villaescusa, a DEA spokesman in Dallas. The agency has found the
illegal drug in at least 38 states, according to the Office of
National Drug Control Policy in Washington, D.C.

Jane Maxwell, chief researcher for the Texas Commission on Alcohol and
Drug Abuse, said her office's studies show that Rohypnol use has been
declining since the mid-1990s, but a recent survey of Texas students
in grades seven through 12 show that 6.7 percent have taken
flunitrazepam.

"Date rape is just an aspect of it," Ms. Maxwell said. "With all the
cases of date rape, people got diverted from the fact that school kids
were using it."

Lt. Robert Almonte, an El Paso narcotics officer, said most cases of
Rohypnol use in El Paso involve school children, not people in nightclubs.

"I'm not saying date rape doesn't happen, but the most frequent user
is young adolescents," Lt. Almonte said. "They want to see what the
effects are. They talk to each other and hear that taking one Rohypnol
is better than drinking a six-pack."