This drug is most common with young adults and teenagers usually at nightclubs. The medical use for this drug is for insomnia and sometimes used as a preanesthetic medicine.
The appearance is usually a small white tablet with no taste that is dissolved in water thus very easy to slip into drinks at nightclubs etc. Although you can snort or swallow it, dissolving it is the most common.
The legal issues for rohypnol were that they never sold legally in the U.S. but before 1996, the public was allowed to bring a 90-day supply of rohypnol when coming in from other countries so some people started to abuse this rule. Although the Drug Induced Prevention Act closed this loophole and therefore banning all possession of the drug in the U.S.
The effects of the drug are devasting on individuals and families as this drug is used to rape girls. The drug starts to work within 20-30 minutes of digestion and the effect can last from 8-10 hours, which is a lot of time for someone to be under influence or amnesia.
Some of the side effects of rohypnol are amnesia, muscle pain, confusion, hallucinations, rapid mood swings, violent bursts of temper and can be life threatening since they are commonly used in alcohol. Another reason why rohypnol is so easy to use is that it is a low cost drug at less than $5.00 per tablet and many believe that is undetectable by urinalysis testing (testing of drug usage with urine).
