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One in three Michigan women have admitted to staying sober out of fear that their drink may be spiked, survey finds.
In August, Birmingham police investigated seven complaints from people who suspect they were drugged at the cocktail bar Rose Room or the adjacent restaurant 220 Merrill.
The women shared striking similarities in their allegations and experiences between March 23 and July 9.
“I started to feel very sick like I was going to pass out,” one woman wrote in a witness statement. “Things got a little blurry. I felt like I needed to sit down. I walked over to a bar stool. My right arm started going numb. My friends gave me water and patted me down because I was sweating very bad like I was dripping in cold sweat.”
Though police closed the investigation due to a lack of tangible evidence, the concern is very real for many women across the country, including those in Michigan, where one in three women say they have remained sober while enjoying a night out in fear their drink may be spiked, a new survey finds.
DrugAbuse.com surveyed 3,081 women across the country and discovered that, on average, 34% of those surveyed say fear having their drink tampered with, often with drugs such as Rohypnol, ketamine, GHB, and GBL — all of which have no color, smell, or taste, making them difficult to detect — and have stayed sober in an attempt to avoid being drugged.
In Michigan, however, 29% of women surveyed have stayed sober as a precautionary effort, which is encouraged by the countless campaigns that urge women to "watch their drinks" or simply "don't get spiked" instead of, you know, telling people to NOT PUT DRUGS IN SOMEONE'S GODDAMN DRINK.
Anyway, one in five women who have had their drinks spiked say the perpetrator was a friend. Meanwhile, 6% of victims identify the perpetrator as an acquaintance. Oh, and 65% of those who have had drinks spiked say they have little to no confidence their perpetrator will face legal consequences.
To add salt to an invisible wound, a separate survey, conducted by Alcohol.org, reports that 7% of women — or one in 10 — have had non-alcoholic beverages spiked because ... well, it's all a bit fucked, isn't it?
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