Crackdown Sought on ‘Date Rape’ Drug

Authorities on Friday called for criminal penalties for possession of a powerful sedative being sold on city streets and known as the “date rape” drug.

The hypnotic drug Rohypnol, known among users as “roofies,” has allegedly been used in a number of rape cases in which women reported that their attacker slipped the small, white pills into their drinks before losing partial memory of the hours that followed.

“We are seeing it in Los Angeles, we’re seeing lots of it,” said Los Angeles Police Det. Trinka Porrata, who appeared at a news conference held at a rape crisis center. “We see people with it but we can’t do anything about it.”

The state Senate has passed a bill by Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) that makes the sale or possession of the drug a crime. Similar legislation, written by state Assemblyman Larry Bowler (R-Elk Grove), is before the state Assembly.

“We’d like to make the sale or possession of this dangerous drug--which has an insidious threat of violence with it--a crime,” Hayden said. “There’s a delusion out there that this is a cheap relaxant. But Rohypnol is really 10 times the power of Valium.”

The drug is sold in 64 countries as a sleeping aid but the manufacturer has not sought approval for sale in the United States. The pills gained notoriety when rock star Kurt Cobain overdosed on the drug, which he took with champagne, a month before killing himself.

The pills, which can cause memory loss, are being sold for about $1 apiece on the street, police said. Because they can cause memory loss, some rape victims have trouble recalling the details of their attack, remembering only enough to be traumatized.

“No rape goes without serious pain and no rape goes without serious damage,” said Charles Hanson, the director of the Valley Trauma Center, where at least one client told counselors her drink was spiked with the drug. “No rape is forgotten.”

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Officials of Hoffmann-La Roche, the firm that manufactures the drug, oppose Hayden’s effort to place the drug in the same classification as substances such as LSD, saying it does little to address abuse of the pills.

Company officials are working with authorities in Texas and Florida to develop a urine test for Rohypnol, as well as creating educational materials for school nurses and counselors, said company spokesman Al Wasilewski.

“We’d certainly like to deny access of the drug to people using it inappropriately,” Wasilewski said.

After discussions with law enforcement agencies, the company is making a weaker version of the drug--about half the dosage--in Mexico and Colombia. Authorities believe traffickers are buying the drug in those countries to smuggle into the United States.

Law enforcement officials say the drug is becoming widely known in Los Angeles. In one bust, police confiscated a specially designed pouch holding dozens of packages of the pills from a man selling them downtown near Parker Center.

Porrata said the drug is being used by heroin addicts to expand the effects of low-grade heroin, and cocaine addicts to “cushion the crash” when the effects of that drug wear off.

Young adults and teenagers are also taking the pills to boost the effects of marijuana and alcohol, police said.

Porrata said: “This is not just a drug used for personal abuse. . . . This is a drug being used as a weapon in a violent crime.”