POLICE SEIZE 3,500 DOSES OF 'DATE-RAPE' DRUG

The size of the first seizure in Canada of the "date-rape drug" rohypnol
has police worried that it is far more prevalent than previously thought.

RCMP found 3,500 doses of the odourless, colourless and tasteless
tranquillizer -- which they had believed was rare in this country -- in a
North Vancouver home last week.

"It's a big concern," said Sergeant Chuck Doucette of the RCMP's drug
awareness unit in B.C. "We had been under the impression, up till now, that
there wasn't any rohypnol [problem] in Canada."

After arresting a man last Thursday for cocaine trafficking, North
Vancouver RCMP executed a search warrant at a home where they found the
rohypnol, as well as crack cocaine, marijuana, hashish, two handguns, a
loaded shotgun and more than $1 million in cash.

Normand Bisson, 48, has been charged with numerous drug and firearm offences.

Rohypnol is a "Schedule 3" substance in Canada, much like speed, which
cannot be imported or trafficked.

While police in Edmonton found trace amounts of rohypnol last June after
charging a man with using the drug against his wife, this is the first
major seizure of the drug. A similar drug, GHB, was seized in Montreal last
November.

Police forces in the Lower Mainland have received the occasional complaint
from someone of being drugged and sexually assaulted, but none of the
complaints have ever been linked to rohypnol.

"Guess what -- it's here, so we need to be concerned," Doucette said. He
said the best advice for women concerned about the drug is to watch their
drinks and not let strangers bring drinks to their table.

Kamilla Singh, a spokeswoman with the Rape Crisis Centre in Vancouver, said
while sexual assault victims tend to be reluctant to go to the police, that
is even more true of those who have been drugged with rohypnol. That's
because the temporary amnesia it causes -- which can last up to eight hours
- -- means women are unable to remember what happened.

"You don't remember anything," said Singh. So while women may have a sense
they have been assaulted, they usually have little or no evidence to bring
to police.

Singh said the centre received 90 to 100 calls last year from women who
believed they may have been sexually assaulted while under the influence of
drugs and the number of cases has been steadily increasing.

While infamous for its role in sexual assaults, the drug has also become
popular in combination with heroin, or to soften the crash after a cocaine
high.

Wayne Jeffery, chief toxicologist with the RCMP in B.C., said he has yet to
see a case of rohypnol used in a sexual assault -- but said the use of
other tranquillizers is quite common. And because rohypnoltends to leave
the body more quickly than other tranquillizers -- in as little as 12 hours
- -- there may have been cases where it was used but not discovered, Jeffery
said.

Classified as a "central nervous system depressant," rohypnol -- part of
the drug class known as benzodiazepine -- slows the body down in much the
same way as alcohol, only much more quickly. It is believed to be as much
as 10 times more powerful than Valium.

And while any tranquillizer can be used to subdue a victim, many have a
bitter taste or odd colour, unlike rohypnol.

And when mixed with alcohol, rohypnol causes "anterograde amnesia."

"What that means is you don't recall what's happening to you when you're
under the effect of the drug," Jeffery said.

More than one million people in 80 countries use medically prescribed
rohypnol for the treatment of severe insomnia. It is legally available in
Europe, Mexico and Central America. However, the drug is not manufactured
or marketed in either Canada or the United States.

Concerns over the reported use of rohypnol in sexual assaults led
Swiss-based manufacturer Hoffman-La Roche Ltd. to announce in 1997 that it
would add a blue dye to the tablets and change the formulation so that it
does not dissolve as quickly in liquids.

However, those changes must be approved by regulatory agencies in the 80
countries where the drug is available. As of last June, only nine nations
- -- primarily in Europe -- had approved the changes.

Hoffman-La Roche Ltd. also removed the two-milligram dosage from the market
in 1996, leaving only the one-milligram tablet. And it reduced the number
of authorized distributors. For example, in Mexico, the number was reduced
from 200 to 16.

However, it is unknown how many tablets may have already reached the black
market. And the drug has been manufactured illegally in powdered form in
some places.

Sue Hammell, B.C. women's equality minister, launched a public awareness
campaign in bars and on university campuses in 1997, when anecdotal
evidence of rohypnol's use first began to appear. Hammell said the seizure
in North Vancouver proves the drug has arrived in B.C. and she plans to
expand the program.