LIKELIEST DATE-RAPE 'DRUG' USED IS ALCOHOL, ACCORDING TO STUDY

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Alcohol was by far the most common drug found in a
study of urine samples taken from 578 rape victims who said they had been
drugged before the attack, a forensic scientist said Friday.

In 40 percent of the samples, no drugs were found, while only
five samples showed the presence of the so-called date rape drug Rohypnol,
said Dr. Mahmoud ElSohly.

"From what we are seeing now, it does not seem that any one drug is
responsible" said ElSohly, who runs a large private lab and teaches
pharmaceutics at the University of Mississippi.

ElSohly presented his study Friday at the annual meeting of the American
Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Only five samples (less than .01 percent) showed the presence of Rohypnol,
and four of those also showed the presence of other drugs, including
alcohol, cocaine and opiates, ElSohly said.

Hoffman-LaRoche, the maker of Rohypnol, nicknamed "roofies" on the street,
paid for the testing, ElSohly said. The drug is used legally in many
countries as a sleep aid.

The samples were provided by police departments, rape crisis centers and
emergency rooms, he said.

Alcohol was present in 208 cases (36 percent), marijuana in 93 (17
percent), tranquilizers in 49 (8 percent) and cocaine in 40 (7 percent).

In 234 cases, ElSohly found no trace of any drugs.

In 1996 a federal law outlawed Rohypnol and mandated an additional 20-year
sentence for anyone caught using the drug to commit rape.