BILL WOULD BAN ROHYPNOL, CALLED THE `DATE-RAPE DRUG'.

Byline: Carolyn R. Saraspi Daily News Staff Writer

Rape counselors and Los Angeles police are supporting legislation to ban what has been called the date-rape drug, Rohypnol, or ``roofies.''

The strong sedative induces sleep and short-term memory loss, and officials say men have slipped the drug to women - typically in drinks - to make them vulnerable to sexual assault.

``It is a disgusting realization that too many men are only a pill away from being rapists,'' Charles Hanson, executive director of the Valley Trauma Center in Northridge, said Friday.

SB 2164 by Sen. Tom Hayden, D-Los Angeles, would make possession and sale of Rohypnol a crime in the state, punishable by two to four years in prison.

The bill passed the Senate 36-0 last month and is now in the Assembly.

``The drug is deadly to young people, especially for young women who may be sexually assaulted and have no memory of what happened to them,'' Hayden said.

Rohypnol, also known as flunitrazepam, is not manufactured in the United States, nor available by prescription. Food and Drug Administration officials say there is no therapeutic need for the drug since so many other sedatives have been approved and are legally available.

The drug is smuggled from countries such as Mexico and Colombia, and is sometimes shipped through international mail or commercial airlines, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Each small, white pill has 10 times the effect of Valium and is used in Europe and Latin America primarily to treat short-term insomnia.

Commonly packaged as over-the-counter medicine tablets, the drug sells from $3 to $5 on the street and can be slipped into a victim's drink, causing her to grow tired and fall asleep within 30 minutes.

``It has the insidious effect of causing a memory regression or amnesia. So you don't know eight or 10, 12 hours later what you went through,'' Hayden said.

Los Angeles police narcotics Detective Trinka Porrata said she knows of a handful of recent rape cases in Los Angeles where use of the drug is suspected. Similar cases have surfaced in Central California, Texas and Florida.

When it became available on the street, Rohypnol had been used as a substitute for hard-core heroin addicts, and to cushion the crash following a cocaine trip, Porrata said.

There have been about 1,000 federal, state and local investigations regarding Rohypnol since 1990, Hayden said.

``The fact that sales and distribution of this drug have mushroomed with its reputation as the `date-rape drug' only attest to the on-going victimization of women and their treatment as sex objects by men,'' Hanson said.

Police are not sure if Rohypnol was used in the alleged gang rape of a UCLA sorority woman by fraternity members in Palm Springs last weekend, but said her story fits the typical scenario.

``We have junior high school students who know exactly where to buy Rohypnol. We have young men who believe the myth that `If she can't say no, then it isn't rape.' So they buy roofies cheap, and use them at whatever opportunity they see,'' said Jeep Hauser, a rape prevention educator at the Valley Trauma Center, which provides counseling to victims of rape.

SB 2164 is scheduled to be heard this month in the Assembly Public Safety Committee.