At one stage an angry crowd pelted police with bricks and stones.At the time police confirmed that riot police and CS spray were used "to restore order ... One middle-aged woman who suffers from severe arthritis and cancer claims a policeman hit her in the chest with a riot shield and then sprayed the liquid directly into her throat from a few inches in front of her face.She was among eight people treated by paramedics at the scene. Others are believed to have consulted lawyers and the civil-liberties group Liberty. At least 12 demonstrators, mainly women, were affected by the spray and others claim they were hit by riot police wielding batons during the trouble at Consort Kennels which breeds beagles for vivisection.Eyewitnesses claim officers fired the spray without warning above the heads of a crowd trying to stop a van carrying people who had been arrested.

The incident at Ross-on-Wye, near Hereford, three weeks ago, is believed to have been the first at which police have used the spray - introduced for personal protection - in a public-order situation. The police deny it was used indiscriminately and say it was for their officers' personal protection and safety. Two demonstrators say they will sue Hereford and Worcester police for alleged assault. Lawyers acting for protesters injured when police cleared an animal- rights rally have made formal complaints over the action, including the alleged indiscriminate use of the controversial CS spray. It is suspected in a further 200 cases.The tablets are used with alcohol, for coming off a cocaine high, and as a substitute for heroin, and are said to be popular in schools as a party drug.In March Florida introduced a bill making Rohypnol an illegal substance on a par with heroin, with life sentences for major traffickers.Since 1995, the US Drug Enforcement Administration has seized 225,000 doses of the drug in Florida.Prosecutors say it is difficult bringing cases because victims "don't remember a thing".. The Miami Poison Unit has 100 recorded cases of rape where Rohypnol was used.

But we have no evidence of any similar misuse of the drug in London."The woman said she was bought a drink by a man with a Scottish accent. She told police the last thing she remembered before waking up at home was that she felt faint half an hour after taking the drink.Mr Macauley said: "It would [be] very hard to prove any case of the drug being used. It goes through the system extremely quickly so by the time any toxicology tests could be done it's unlikely there would be any traces in the bloodstream."Scotland Against Drugs, a part-government, part-private industry-funded organisation, is seeking to raise awareness among young people of the dangers presented by Rohypnol and another commonly abused anaesthetic, Kitamine, which was identified as a "date-rape" pill in the US in 1979.Women looking to buy ecstasy in Scottish night-clubs and pubs have been deliberately sold Kitamine instead, said Dr Macauley.Rohypnol is available on prescription in 64 countries but is banned in the United States where it has gained widespread notoriety as a the "date-rape pill".So well-known are its properties that it featured in an episode of the hit hospital series ER, screened in the UK last week, in which a nurse was raped after she was given the drug unwittingly.Florida has been the centre of the US battle over the drug, where a "roofie", as a tablet of Rohypnol is called, costs as little as $1.50. When she wakes up she knows little or nothing about it."Last week, a report by a woman that her drink was spiked with an unknown substance in Soho, central London, prompted Scotland Yard to issue a warning to women to beware of the possibility that strangers may try to spike their drinks.A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police said: "We are aware of reports of Rohypnol's use in the United States.

Rohypnol is here," said David Macauley of the Glasgow-based campaign group Scotland Against Drugs."If you had to compose the requirements for a date-rape drug then Rohypnol is as close as you can get," he said."It can work within 20 minutes... The drug, Rohypnol, is available on private prescription in the UK for back pain and insomnia and is also used as a pre-surgery anaesthetic. It is 10 times more powerful than Valium. But if the drug is taken unsupervised, particularly in combination with social drugs or alcohol, it has the more sinister effect of making the victim vulnerable to rape."I have had reports of it being misused in this country and used as a date-rape drug There have been police seizures of it in Scotland. "But I cannot see how it is in the public interest for footage like this to be seen.".