Flunitrazepam - History

History

Flunitrazepam was first synthesized in 1972 by Roche in Europe and was used in hospitals when deep sedation was needed. It first entered the commercial market in Europe in 1975 as Rohypnol produced by Roche, and in the 1980s it began to be available in other countries. It first appeared in the US in late 1983 - mid 1984. It originally came in doses of 1 mg and 2 mg, but due to its potency and potential for abuse, most European countries changed their drug laws and limited the dose to 1 mg—in many countries, the maximum dose per package was limited to 20 or 30 mg. In Germany there had been two changes in availability during a short period in the late 1990s; the first one restricting the dose to 20 mg per package, and for a short time only 10 tablets with 2 mg were available. Soon another change in the German Narcotic Act limited the dose for each tablet to 1 mg, while ampoules containing the 2 mg solution were not changed by Roche and have been handled as a controlled narcotic like morphine. In the countries where flunitrazepam is available for prescription as both 1 mg and 2 mg tablets, such as the Netherlands, generic alternatives are available for the 2 mg tablets. However, in Asia and South America there are original 2 mg tablets from Roche still available.

The newly designed 1 mg tablets introduced in the late 1990s by Roche for the European market are identical in all countries, only the packaging and packaging size differs since there are different laws in each country. The new tablets are green (containing a blue coloring) and are pressed harder during manufacturing—so that the tablets can only dissolve quickly in hot liquids, while turning the drink a blue color and leaving a green residue in the beverage—were introduced to prevent use as a rape drug and abuse on the drug scene. However there have been only few reported cases in Europe where flunitrazepam was used as a rape drug and in most countries flunitrazepam is still offered as a generic drug with white tablets that can be dissolved easily.

In the 2000s some European countries started to treat flunitrazepam as a strong narcotic, for example Poland in 2004. The most recent change was the change in the German drug law regarding flunitrazepam; since November 2011 the drug is only available with a special narcotic prescription. German Rohypnol tablets disappeared almost overnight from the black market. However it took only a few weeks before organized crime became the major supplier for the drug on the black market, as in the United States. The tablets come from western European countries where it is still available with a normal prescription. Some users living on the borders are driving to these countries and buy the drug on the black market, since there are no border controls within the European Union.