Roofied

Roofied or getting roofied means to dose or get dosed with flunitrazepam or with a similar drug, usually hiding it in a drink at parties, to rape or victimize a person in any way.

As a noun, “roofie” is the dose of the drug flunitrazepam.

Flunitrazepam, otherwise called Rohypnol, is utilized to treat serious sleep deprivation and anesthesia.

However, now it is a so-called date rape drug, though the percentage of reported rape cases in which it is involved is small.

Probably the origin of the term derives from the alteration and shortening of Rohypnol.

The term was first recorded in the 1990s, when “getting roofied” in parties started to be a concern amongst young people.

Flunitrazepam was identified by Leo Sternbach at Roche; the license case was submitted in 1962 and was first put up for sale in 1974.

However, due to abuse of the drug for date rape and recreation, in 1998 Roche modified the formulation to give lower doses, make it less soluble, and add a blue dye for easier detection in drinks.

 A 1999 research about the topic showed that out of 1,179 urine specimens from victims of suspected sexual assaults. In 49 American states six (0.5%) was found  positive for Rohypnol.

This research proves that there aren’t many who were victimized with the help of that drug.

Regardless, in every household, particularly if there is a young adult woman there, the discussion of safety in clubs should always, and fortunately more often than not, occur.

The term on the Internet though gained a global presence. “Roofied” usually appears in multiple different forms, like tweets, memes, subreddits, etc.

On Urban Dictionary, it also earned its first entry in 2010 and was posted by the user spayzant.

• Women’s Care Florida – How to Avoid Getting Roofied
• Medical News Today – What you should know about date rape drugs