A Loser's Best Friend

Topic: Date Rape Drugs

Audience: Freshman college girls

Purpose: To make college freshman girls aware of the date rape drugs out there, what they do to one's body, their appearance, the after affects, and how they are put into the body.

Forum: a pamphlet passed out at the G-spot on campus.

A Loser's Best Friend

You are out with your friends on your way to the new hottest dance club. The adrenaline is rushing through your body and your heart starts to rush as the car pulls up to the club entrance. You can already hear the bass coming from the inside of the club as it lines up with the rhythm of your heart. You walk in and the music engulfs you as the world around you becomes darker. Once inside, you immediately lead the way to the middle of the dance floor. The bass is loud and the atmosphere is dense, full of excitement. After what seems like forever of dancing, you realize how thirsty you are and make your way over to bar to get a drink.

On your journey to the bar, a very good looking gentleman you do not know stops you. He asks if you want to dance but you motion towards the bar since the music is so loud. He holds up what looks like an unopened water bottle and offers it to you. Too thirsty to say no, you accept the bottle, thank the person, and promise him a dance later as you head back to your friends. You open the bottle of water, chug it quickly and toss the empty bottle on the floor. On your way back to the dance floor, your head starts to spin and you become dizzy. Your feel like you are not even in your own body. You quickly ignore the signs and assume it is from the club music and being dehydrated.

But soon the world in front of your eyes starts to turn black, fade away, and eventually is gone. As your eyes once again start to open, you can see all of your friends huddled around you. It seems like you have been asleep for years. You are not sure what happened to the dance club, music, people, or anything. Confusion over takes you, as you try to understand why you lying in a bed in your friend's dorm room. You have no recollection of the night. You soon learn that the drink you had from the very good looking stranger, the one you had promised a danced to, had put a date rape drug in the water bottle.

Most of us go out to clubs, or parties, or bars with a big group of friends. But we never expect that one of our own friends or even ourselves may have been slipped a date rape drug.

Rohypnol (Flunitrazepam) - Street names are Roofies, Forget-Me Pill, Ruffies, and Mexican Valium. This drug is a central nervous system depressant. It is related to a more common drug known as Valium, but is ten times stronger according to Margaret Hyde and John F. Setaro authors of Drugs 101 (56). According to whitehousedrugpolicy.gov, Rohypnol can be taken orally, snorted, crushed or ingested (Walter np). It can be crushed and added to any sort of liquid since it is tasteless and odorless. The effects start to take place about 15 to 20 minutes after the drug is put into your body. Depending on the amount taken, the effects may last up to 12 hours.

While on the drug, you experience reduced anxiety and pain, relaxed muscles, sleepiness, decreased blood pressure, and an overall feeling of well-being. It causes reactions and coordination to slow down. These effects are greatly increased with the consumption of alcohol.

After the drug has worn off side effects include dizziness, confusion, tremors, headaches, and memory impairment. The memory impairment makes it difficult for you to remember what actually happened.

The drug is neither manufactured nor sold in the United States, but is sold in Europe, Mexico, and Colombia. Having it manufactured in Mexico, makes it very easy and accessible to citizens in the United States. The pill is manufactured by the company Hoffmann-La Roche. Hence, the word "Roche" is one side of the pill. According to "Drug-Facilitated Sexual Assault" the tablet looks like a little aspirin pill with a split-pill line down the middle on one of the sides (Weis 80).

GHB (Gamma-hydroxybutyrate) - Street names are Easy Lay, Liquid X, Salty Water, Scoop, and Cherry Meth. GHB is also a powerful central nervous system depressant. It starts to take place 10 to 15 minutes after the drug has entered your body according to Cynthia Kuhn, author of Buzzed ( ). While on the drug, you may almost feel like you are under the influence of alcohol. And to others that is how you appear: drunk. You have mood swings, dizziness, nausea, may vomit, disorientation, and may possibly go unconsciousness. GHB also starts to interfere with motor skills and can cause a sleep like coma to occur. This drug also causes severe respiratory depression which may lead to a coma or even death. The effects last 3 to 6 hours taken without alcohol and 36 to 72 hours when taken with alcohol or other drugs.

This drug is very serious when taken with alcohol since it has already caused death to someone. "Hillory Farias, seventeen, a varsity volleyball player was found unconscious and not breathing the morning of August 4 after a night out with girlfriends. She died mysteriously by the illegal 'date rape drug GHB that was slipped into her drink.' She complained of a severe headache after coming home from a teenage dance club, where she had two "sodas". Authorities suggested that there was nothing to indicate that she willingly took the drug" (Hyde 55).

GHB used to be sold in health food stores as an additive to body building formulas but was soon banned by the FDA in 1990 (Walter np). It can be bought in the form of a light colored powder or a liquid for a price between five and ten dollars. The liquid form of GHB looks exactly like water and the powder form dissolves quickly. Both forms are odorless, so it can be easily added to any liquid without your knowledge.

Ketamine (Ketamine hydrochloride) - Street names are Special K, Make-Her-Mine, Ket Kat, and Cat Valium. The effects of Ketamine can start immediately to 20 minutes later when taken orally. When you are on the drug, you are delirious, have vivid hallucinations, aggressive behavior, and intensified colors and sounds. The aggressive behavior is the most important effect. It might cause you to act in a more sexual and insistent manner than you would normally. Thus, you might make decisions you would have not made in a normal state of mind.

Ketamine is one of the only date rape drugs that is legal in the United States. Melissa Abramovitz, author of "The Knockout Punch of Date Rape Drugs," says, "Ketamine was developed for medical purposes. It was used