Begin typing your search...
Women tweet tales of city pubs spiking drinks, spark furore
A series of posts by women on Twitter alleging that some pubs in the city ‘spike’ alcoholic drinks when served to youngsters (especially girls) has raised a huge furore. Following one account by a city-based writer on how she blacked out after accepting a free drink from a popular watering hole in the city when alone, quite a few others took to social media and recounted similar experiences.
Chennai
The writer who is in her early mid-20s posted that she’d visited a bar in Chennai on a Tinder date. Being a Monday afternoon, they were the only customers. “We ordered a cocktail each and drank them, made out in the smoking room, and then got back to the table. I ordered another cocktail; he didn’t. He took a few sips from mine and suddenly developed a horrible headache, so bad that he couldn’t see straight. He was in a lot of pain and needed to lie down.”
They decided to leave and paid the bill. “He left at 4.30 pm and I was alone in the bar. I texted my mother to tell her I’d be back earlier than expected and finished my drink. The waiter then brought me a free drink and a free shot. I thought that was sweet and drank some of the drink - but didn’t sample the shot. The next thing I remember of that evening is at 7pm, I was in a cab and the driver was pulling over to help me get up. I threw up and blacked out again. Next thing I knew, I’m sitting outside my apartment, again throwing up.”
After her story was re-tweeted widely, the writer, wishing anonymity, told DTNext that this was an insidious, city-wide problem, irrespective of the management. She also considered legal action when the issue happened. “I got a blood test done, but it was too late. I’d drunk a lot of water and slept earlier thinking it was a hangover, so the results came up as inconclusive.” The city-based writer who recounted on Twitter about how she blacked out after accepting a free drink from a popular watering hole in Chennai when alone, said that she was not the only one to have had such an experience.
“After my tweet, girls have texted me detailing similar experiences, but wanted to be anonymous as they were scared of retaliation or afraid of ruining their reputation as our society still considers women who drink or party as immoral!”
P Aishwarya, a final-year college student in the city, who frequents some of the popular spots on weekends, said, “I used to go bar-hopping with my friends almost every Saturday as we have the next day off and can sleep in. But we really wanted to visit some places on a Wednesday as it is Ladies’ Night around town, and women get free drinks. Finally, in July, we drove into the city (as our hostel is in the outskirts) and visited four-five places in and around Nungambakkam and T Nagar. I wish I could recall where exactly we were spiked, but all I remember is that around 1am, nearly all of us girls felt dizzy and started vomiting.”
Aishwarya continues, shuddering as she remembers what happened, “Suddenly, we had a group of random men around us offering assistance and asking if they could drop us home. We hadn’t noticed these guys all night, which was even more weird. One of them even had his hands around my friend and was holding her hair up. I started panicking and wasn’t able to think straight. Thankfully, one of my friends had stayed sober and she had the sense to ask these men to leave immediately – which they did only after ten minutes.”
She added, “I know everyone would dismiss it saying that we are youngsters who can’t handle out liquor. But each of us had consumed hardly two drinks each (as we wanted to dance and travel back home safe) and they were highly diluted as well. This has never happened earlier when we’d drunk more. How is it possible? Is Ladies’ Night a guise for some places to drug young women and make them vulnerable? It took me almost a week to recover from the experience and when I went to a doctor, she said I had food poisoning.”
Date rape drugs commonly available in India include the likes of GHB (gamma hydroxybutyric acid), rohypnol (flunitrazepam) and ketamine (ketamine hydrochloride). All of these compounds cause some combination of drowsiness, nausea, unconsciousness and vomiting. Rave parties are known to flout these along with others such as LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide) and ecstasy that cause hallucination.
“Any of these drugs mixed in the drinks, or even a mixture of different alcoholic beverages that are strong, can bring about blackouts or memory loss for men or women. They could wake up after a couple of hours with little remembrance of what actually happened,” said general physician Dr S Ganapathy.
A senior figure in the industry, who currently manages a pub in the centre of the city, said that he found the insinuations hard to accept. “I think this is almost impossible in a place like Chennai, as security measures are quite high here. First of all, all the spaces have CCTV cameras installed and not even a single drink can be poured without being captured. If any customer wishes to make a complaint, the evidence is right there. Next, the staff are thoroughly subjected to background checks and we handle their bank accounts – they can’t bring in or take out anything from the premises,” said the manager.
He also explained that every ounce of liquor poured is maintained diligently — “When we purchase bottles from the Tasmac, they are labelled and placed on record. The bill is assigned a serial number and we get the signature of the tahsildar and other relevant authorities. During service, every drink consumed is taken note of and while closing shop, entered into the books. On top of all this, we also report to the enforcement department who make random checks every now and then – they verify the number of units stored, our FL2 licenses, cleanliness and so on. Even if they find that the number of bottles is in excess, they can shut us down. With such strict regulations in place, I don’t see why anyone would risk their livelihoods to spike drinks – and that too, with what agenda?”
Here, Sushmita, a dancer, who posted her story on the same matter online, said, “Agenda? One, we could be sexually molested or led to trust a stranger into dropping us home safely. Extra items could be added to our bill amount and we wouldn’t be in a clear frame of mind to verify it. Someone could steal our phones or go into our bags and we wouldn’t have the slightest idea.”
DJ Kartheban Ramasamy, who has worked in a number of pubs in the last decade in Chennai, said that other customers may also be responsible. “You never know who’s bringing what substance into nightclubs. Similarly, rival clubs also spread rumours. Having been in the city all these years, I can confirm that the scene here is as safe as can be,” said Ramasamy who is the resident DJ of Pasha nightclub at The Park.
Party-goers, however, will do well to remember that only a few years ago, a well-known watering hole in the city was sealed after a foreign expat posted a detailed note on Facebook, claiming to have been drugged at the premises by the staff. The post that went viral, was never verified, but did result in the space being shut down even though it reopened under a new name with different management team.
How to know if your drink is spiked?
- Feeling of drunkenness even when you have not consumed
- a lot of alcohol
- Nausea
- Slurred speech
- Difficulty walking/standing
- Confusion
- Excessive thirst
What can you do?
- Immediately alert a trusted friend or family member.
- Do not isolate yourself.
- Do not attempt to sleep off the feeling.
- Remain in the same spot and wait for help.
- Document whatever details of the evening you can before you forget them.
- To confirm if your drink has been spiked, you will have to take a serum test by visiting the hospital, as the common drugs used to spike drinks such as Rohypnol, GHB and Ketamine can be detected only through this test.
- Call an ambulance or the police if unable to reach a confidante.
- Avoid consuming any more drinks or food.
Past incident: Expat’s complaint shut down pub
Party-goers, however, will do well to remember that only a few years ago, a well-known watering hole in the city was sealed after a foreign expat posted a detailed note on Facebook, claiming to have been drugged at the premises by the staff. The post that went viral, was never verified, but did result in the space being shut down even though it reopened under a new name with different management team.
Visit news.dtnext.in to explore our interactive epaper!
Download the DT Next app for more exciting features!
Click here for iOS
Click here for Android
Next Story