What Are Date-Rape Drugs?

Date-rape drugs are substances that make it easier for someone to rape or sexually assault another person. They include alcohol and some medications. The person who’s attacked might become confused, have trouble defending themselves, or not be able to remember what happened later.

“Date rape” doesn’t always happen on a date. An attacker could be someone you just met or someone you’ve known for a while.

Common Types of Date-Rape Drugs

An attacker can use several kinds of drugs or medications to overpower someone else or cause them to forget an incident. The most common date-rape drugs are:

• GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyric acid). This is a depressant that has many nicknames: easy lay, Georgia home boy, liquid X, liquid ecstasy, liquid E, grievous bodily harm, Gib, G-riffic, scoop, soap, salty water, organic Quaalude, or fantasy. Doctors sometimes prescribe it to treat a sleep disorder called narcolepsy.
• Rohypnol (flunitrazepam). This is a strong benzodiazepine (a class of tranquilizers) also known as Mexican Valium, circles, roofies, la rocha, roche, R2, rope, and forget-me pill. It’s not available legally in the United States. In other countries, doctors sometimes use it as anesthesia before surgery.
• Ketamine. This is a dissociative drug that makes you feel detached from reality. Its nicknames include Special K, vitamin K, and cat Valium. Doctors and veterinarians use it as anesthesia. Researchers are also studying it in people who have severe depression.
• Alcohol. Many attackers use one of those three drugs along with alcohol. It can boost the medicine’s effects. But alcohol by itself can also keep someone from defending themselves, knowing what’s happening to them, or remembering it later.

Date-Rape Drug Effects

• GHB can make you sleepy, forgetful, or weak. It can also cause seizures, slow heartbeat, slow breathing, and a coma. The effects start in 15 to 30 minutes and last 3 to 6 hours.
• Rohypnol relaxes you. In high doses, it can cause trouble controlling your muscles, amnesia, loss of inhibitions, and loss of consciousness. Its effects usually start within 30 minutes and peak about 2 hours after you take it. As little as 1 milligram can affect you for 8 to 12 hours.
• Ketamine might make you hallucinate or feel woozy. It can also cause an upset stomach, vomiting, high blood pressure, changes in your heart rate, seizures, or a coma. It usually takes effect within 30 minutes and lasts an hour or two. But you could be affected for a day or more.
• Alcohol may make you relaxed, chatty, and confident. As you drink more, your emotions become unstable, and you lose control of your body. Drinking too much can put you in a coma. Alcohol usually enters your brain within a few minutes.

How to Avoid Date-Rape Drugs

A few tips can help keep you safe when you’re out:

• Pour your own drinks. Avoid open containers that could be spiked, like punch bowls. Don’t accept drinks from other people.
• Keep control of your drink at all times. Carry it yourself, even if you have to take it to the bathroom with you.
• Don’t drink anything that tastes strange.

• Stick with your friends. Ask them for help if you start to feel odd

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Evidence links e-cigarette use with increased odds of prediabetes

New study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine challenges the promotion by some of e-cigarettes as a “safer” smoking alternative, especially for current cigarette smokers

“Our study demonstrated a clear association of prediabetes risk with the use of e-cigarettes,” explained lead investigator Shyam Biswal, PhD, Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA. “With both e-cigarette use and prevalence of prediabetes dramatically on the rise in the past decade, our discovery that e-cigarettes carry a similar risk to traditional cigarettes with respect to diabetes is important for understanding and treating vulnerable individuals.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), traditional cigarette smokers are 30% to 40% more likely than non-smokers to develop type 2 diabetes, which increases their risk for cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerotic disorders, stroke, and peripheral vascular diseases

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(And worse still, Our Kids Are Getting Hooked On This Failed Harm Reduction Vehicle)

The use of e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation method did not significantly prevent relapse or successful termination, according to survey findings published in Tobacco Control.

“This is the first survey in which e-cigarettes were less popular as a smoking cessation aid than FDA-approved pharmaceutical aids,” John P. Pierce, PhD, a distinguished professor at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at UC San Diego and UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, said in a press release. “Not only were e-cigarettes not as popular, but they were associated with less successful quitting.”

The results further showed that e-cigarettes were associated with lower abstinence rates at 12 or more months compared with pharmaceutical aids (adjusted risk difference [aRD] = 7.3%; 95% CI, 14.4 to –0.4) or any other method (aRD = 7.7%; 95% CI, 12.2 to –3.2), according to Pierce and colleagues.

Although the finding was insignificant, the researchers also noted that respondents who switched to e-cigarettes appeared to have a higher relapse rate than those who did not switch to e-cigarettes or other tobacco products. By 2019, nearly 60% of recent former smokers who used e-cigarettes daily had resumed cigarette smoking.

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Also see Vaping Info Sheet

Protect Your Brain: Why Age of First Use Matters

Vaping can be tough on the lungs, but new research warns of another possible danger to men: It may more than double the risk for erectile dysfunction.

After tracking erectile dysfunction (ED) risk among nearly 25,000 men aged 20 and older, investigators found that even vapers with no history of heart disease or other health issues typically associated with impotence saw their risk shoot up more than twofold.

The finding suggests that while electronic cigarettes may offer some users a helpful pathway towards kicking a cigarette habit, there are potential downsides.

"Any tobacco or nicotine product is not risk-free, especially for those who are thinking of starting to use it," cautioned lead study author Dr. Omar El Shahawy. He's an assistant professor at New York University's Grossman School of Medicine.

For example, "there is abundant evidence that consistent exposure to high nicotine levels [in traditional tobacco products] can impair normal erectile function," El Shahawy noted. "[And] some e-cigarettes have very high nicotine concentrations, especially when using newer generation e-cigarettes that have high nicotine delivery. This made us examine the possible relationship between using e-cigarettes and erectile dysfunction."

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