A GROWING EPIDEMIC

When a male acquaintance offered Sheri a glass of water while the two were
out dancing at a popular Chicago nightspot, the 25-year-old Libertyville
woman never suspected an ulterior motive. But within 15 minutes of drinking
it, both she and her friend Sue (who had sipped from the same glass) found
themselves slipping in and out of consciousness on the floor of the women's
bathroom.

Sheri remembered being carried from the club and placed in a taxi along with
Sue. The male acquaintance accompanied them back to Sue's apartment, where
Sue then locked herself in a bedroom. Sheri ended up on a sofa in the living
room, where the man sexually assaulted her. She tried to resist but felt
paralyzed. When she awoke sick and dazed the next morning, the man was gone
and so was $80 from her wallet.

Although they have no conclusive proof, Sheri and Sue (real names withheld)
believe the water they drank was laced with flunitrazepam (Rohypnol), one of
several trendy substances being used by sexual predators to perpetrate rapes
against women, particularly young women active on the dating scene. Though
alcohol has been similarly misused for decades and continues to be the
primary aggravating factor in sexual assaults, a fact confirmed by the
Illinois State Police, in recent years it has been augmented by these
so-called "date-rape" drugs, which also include ketamine and gamma
hydroxybutyrate (GHB).

The drugs generally come in either tablet or liquid form, are colorless,
odorless, essentially tasteless and soluble in liquid. Slipped into a drink,
they can impair a victim's motor skills and lead to confusion,
unconsciousness and retrograde amnesia. In excessive doses or when mixed
with alcohol, they can kill.

By the time a woman realizes she has been raped, crucial forensic evidence
may have been lost. The drugs often are metabolized by the body quickly and
cannot be detected through typical toxicology (blood) screening but rather
through urinalysis. Unfortunately, many hospitals may still not know enough
about the drugs or how they work to administer the urine test.

What's more, the victim's inability to recall details about the assault may
leave her straining for credibility with police officers, prosecutors, even
family and friends.

"There's a lot of guilt and shame among these women, especially if they've
been out drinking," said Cindy Ringer-Findlay, volunteer coordinator for the
Lake County Council Against Sexual Assault (LaCASA). "They end up feeling
angry and responsible for what happened to them."

Ringer-Findlay estimated that LaCASA received about 25 calls last year from
women who had been drugged and raped. Since the agency began tracking
drug-assisted sex incidents this year, 18 more cases have been reported.

"We never really know how many women are date-raped (using these drugs),
because a lot of them don't come forth," said Joseph Dillmann, a
Libertyville pharmacist who lectures nationally on substance abuse. "They
can't remember what happened. Sometimes it's actually a friend who witnessed
the incident who tips them off."

Ten times more potent than Valium, Rohypnol is not approved for American use
but has been prescribed legally and safely in 80 countries for two decades
to combat insomnia. But it is also a favorite among recreational drug users
and would-be rapists, who covet it for its ability to incapacitate their
victims.

According to Dillmann, the dime-size tablets, often referred to as
"roofies," cost anywhere from 50 cents to $4 on the street and are smuggled
into the United States from Mexico and South America via Texas and Florida.

To address this problem, Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., the drug's
Switzerland-based manufacturer, sharply curtailed the number of distributors
of the drug in Mexico, eliminated direct sales to pharmacies, supported a
1996 U.S. customs ban on its importation and withdrew its oft-smuggled 2
milligram tablet from the market. "The results have been gratifying," said
company spokeswoman Gail Safian, noting that the number of Rohypnol tablets
confiscated by Texas authorities at the Mexican border fell by 70 percent in
the first nine months of 1997, the latest stats available.

To facilitate quicker detection in a drink, the company reformulated the
medication to emit a blue dye and dissolve slowly in liquid. The new
formulation currently has been approved in 16 of the countries where
Rohypnol is legal.

And during the last several years, Hoffmann-La Roche has been contracting
with an independent forensics lab in Mississippi to provide rape-crisis
centers, hospitals and law enforcement agencies with free urinalysis to
determine what substances have been used in conjunction with a sexual
assault. Urine samples must be collected expeditiously, because GHB can
dissipate in as little as four to six hours.

Of the 1,324 urine samples independently analyzed there from across the
country between June 1996 and August of this year, 6 contained Rohypnol and
51 contained GHB. More than 500 samples contained alcohol, and the remainder
contained sedatives and other prescription medication, as well as illegal
substances such as marijuana and cocaine.

"I think `roofies' has become a generic term for all kinds of sedatives,"
Safian said, citing the lab results. "In terms of symptoms, there are a
number of benzodiazepines and barbiturates that would have similar
properties (to those of Rohypnol). You can't diagnose by symptom."

Ketamine, or "Special K," is an animal tranquilizer used by veterinarians
but craved by youthful partygoers for its euphoric side effects. In more
sinister hands, higher doses can and have been used to anesthetize rape
victims. A desire to obtain the drug has been linked to break-ins at
veterinary clinics around the country, including one at a Lake Zurich animal
hospital last December.

But for drug abusers and sexual predators alike, one of the most accessible
drugs currently in circulation and one seemingly quite popular in Lake
County, according to LaCASA, is GHB, a powerful synthetic compound that
depresses the central nervous system. Also known as "Liquid G," the drug is
simple enough to be prepared at home with store-bought chemicals using
recipes pulled from the Internet. This makes it especially dangerous because
purity and potency vary markedly from batch to batch.

Bodybuilders like GHB because it functions as a steroid, and it was even
stocked by some nutrition centers before being banned by the FDA in 1990.
But it is still being manufactured and sold illegally through covert
mail-order catalogs.

In July 1997, a 21-year-old Elk Grove Village woman lapsed into a four-day
coma after ingesting GHB and alcohol while partying with several male
companions on a boat on Grass Lake near Antioch.

"It appeared she knew what she was taking," said Lt. Rick Eckenstahler of
the Lake County Sheriff's Department. "When we found her, she was
unconscious and disrobed, so we investigated it (as a sexual assault). But
at some point, she was a willing participant." In the end, he said, there
was insufficient evidence to pursue the woman's case.

Last December, a statewide grand jury indicted three northern Illinois men
for trafficking the drug in Lake, Cook, DuPage and Kane Counties. Since the
indictment, one defendant has pleaded guilty to unlawful delivery of a
controlled substance; the other two are awaiting trial.

But there still have been no successful prosecutions of cases involving
drug-assisted rape anywhere in Illinois, observed Nancy Carlson, a policy
adviser to Illinois Atty. Gen. Jim Ryan. "Rape is hard enough to prosecute,
because there's rarely a witness, and it becomes one person's word against
another's," she said. "Now, without the victim being able to testify as to
what happened to her, it's become even more difficult."

In August, Gov. Jim Edgar signed legislation making the use of controlled
substances in criminal sexual assaults a Class X felony, punishable by 30
years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Under the new law, sexual assault
victims who suspect they have been drugged can submit to a voluntary
urinalysis and have the results entered into court evidence, but they first
must be provided with a full disclosure by hospital personnel regarding the
scope of the test and then be given 48 hours to return a signed consent
authorizing the sample analysis.

The victim's written authorization is vital because the urinalysis is
comprehensive and may reveal the presence not only of date-rape and
prescription drugs but also of other illicit drugs used by the victim,
according to Lynn Schollett, staff attorney for the Illinois Coalition
Against Sexual Assault in Springfield. In fact, the coalition officially
opposed the legislation, fearful that the test would become a screening tool
for investigating and prosecuting drug cases against women.

"But now that the law has been passed," Schollett said, "we're working
closely with the attorney general's office to establish very specific
protocols in the ER to ensure informed consent on the victim's part."

Last summer, Atty. Gen. Ryan unveiled a plan that establishes guidelines for
how colleges, police and medical professionals can recognize and respond to
drug-related sexual assault incidents. The guidelines include the formation
of community task forces, the creation and distribution of information kits
and educational materials regarding date-rape drugs to campuses and
rape-crisis centers, and an aggressive two-year training effort by Illinois
State Police to teach other officers and campus security how to investigate
these types of assaults.

The plan is an outgrowth of an emergency summit convened by Ryan's office in
January. It drew about 600 college educators, police and medical
professionals, public policymakers and women's advocates to Springfield,
where they pledged a statewide campaign to stop the spread of date-rape
drugs in Illinois colleges and universities.

"We see this as a growing problem," Carlson said. "We hope to respond to it
before it becomes a crisis."

Closer to home, LaCASA has been active in educating both hospital and law
enforcement personnel about date-rape drugs. "We don't see a lot of sexual
assaults at our hospital, so we might not be quite as savvy to these newer
variations on an old theme," observed Dr. Bruce Harris, medical director of
emergency services at Highland Park Hospital, which recently benefited from
a LaCASA presentation.

In addition, county police officers are signing on for LaCASA-sponsored
training seminars at the College of Lake County in Grayslake. "We're trying
to raise the awareness of our officers so they'll know what to look for in
these situations," said Fox Lake Police Lt. Richard Becmer, whose department
has handled several date-rape drug incidents.

And Jane Hunter, LaCASA's director of community services, is delivering a
cautionary message to teens in area high schools who view drugs such as GHB
and ketamine as part of the party culture. "They may recognize the dangers
but don't think anything bad will happen to them," Hunter observed. "They
make a lot of assumptions about people that are not always correct."

As precautions, experts advise against leaving drinks unattended or
accepting drinks from strangers. At a bar, order drinks only from the
bartender or server. In gatherings with friends, look out for each other.
"Be wise and wary," Becmer said. "It's important to know who you're with. If
a stranger comes into your midst, you've just got to be careful."

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst