Date rape prevention

Lindquist, Scott. The Date Rape Prevention Book The Essential Guide for Girls and Women. Naperville, IL Sourcebook, Inc., 2000. 

Narcolepsy is a rare disease characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness. It has a prevalence of 0.05% in the general population and affects an estimated 140,000 people in the United States. In 2002, the FDA approved sodium oxybate (Xyrem ) for the treatment of cataplexy in patients with narcolepsy. The active ingredient in this drug is gamma hydroxybutyrate, or GHB. The development and marketing of sodium oxybate was permitted after a revision of the Date Rape Prevention Act of 2000 (see Chapter 5) that allowed GHB to be legally administered for medical purposes. 

Figure 7.2 Photographed above is a box of Rohypnol tranquillizer pills, powerful sedatives normally prescribed as sleeping pills for insomniacs, which have unfortunately gained notoriety as a "date rape" drug. Rohypnol causes sleepiness and memory loss when dissolved in an alcoholic drink therefore, a blue dye has been added to the pills to prevent this from occurring unnoticed. 

The Drug-Induced Rape Prevention and Punishment Act of 1996 deals with the use of flunitrazepan (also called Rohypnol, or roofies ) to facilitate so-called date rape. The law provided for an additional sentence to be imposed in such rapes. 

According to published reports, Rohypnol was first used to commit date rape in 1993. In 1996, President Clinton signed the Drug-Induced Rape Prevention and Punishment Act. This legislation provides for prison sentences of up to 20 years for anyone possessing a controlled substance with the intent to commit a violent crime, including rape, by secretly drugging someone else. 

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