The guidelines resulted from the authors’ meeting during the 1998 American Academy of Forensic Sciences Meeting in San Francisco, Calif., to discuss these issues and to develop guidelines for collecting and submitting biological specimens of suspected date rapes and to assist professionals in forensic toxicology. One of the most difficult aspects of toxicological investigations is the extensive varieties and vast chemical differences among drugs used in drug-facilitated rape. Medical and police professionals should obtain a 100 milliliter urine specimen as quickly as possible, at least within 4 days of the alleged event. They should also collect and preserve a 30 milliliter blood specimen when it can be obtained within 24 hours of ingestion of the drug. Forensic toxicology laboratories should develop and validate analytical procedures that can detect and identify the common date-rape drugs at low concentrations. Research should also focus on the use of non-routine specimens such as hair and sweat and on the amnesiac effect of different drugs with and without the presence of alcohol. Tables and 22 references