Nightclubs must act, says victim of drink spiking
A JEWISH student has spoken out about having her drink spiked with a date-rape drug in the hope that nightclubs make changes to protect females.
Amy Berman revealed her experience amid reports of women being injected with drugs and having their drinks tampered with.
Like many female students, Ms Berman had heard about people having their drink spiked but never thought it would happen to her.
Writing in the student paper The Tab about the culture of drink-tampering, she explained how, after reluctantly accepting a drink from a man in nightclub, she was left “convulsing and throwing up blood”.
She told the JC: “I thought I was going to die. I was struggling to breathe and begging my friend to message my mum and my boyfriend to tell them I love them.”
Ms Berman said she was at a night club in Leeds last Friday when a stranger persisted in offering her a drink at the bar. “I felt uncomfortable and in the end I just accepted the drink to get him to stop. It isn’t that unusual and I didn’t think anything of it until it was too late,” she said.
Ms Berman said she recalls tasting the drink and it being “quite salty and fizzy”. Within minutes of drinking it she said she “couldn’t feel my body. I went to the toilet and luckily by then I had found my friends.”
She was so unwell her friends called an ambulance — however it was later cancelled after “the club paramedics shouted at my friends for wasting their time”. Ms Berman said the way she was treated by the nightclub staff made her feel “even more vulnerable. They treated me like I was just a drunk person.
“They dragged me to a separate, smaller room and shouted at me to sober up.”
Because she was never taken to hospital, doctors told her she had missed a vital window to know for certain if she had been spiked with the date rape drug GHB. “They told me that the events were consistent with GHB consumption,” she said.
“Suddenly it all clicked. My drink was extremely bubbly, and the salty taste was consistent with the presence of GHB. I was shocked and embarrassed — I could not believe this had happened.
“I know I hadn’t drank enough to be that sick. I was terrified. You hear about it happening to people but you never think it could happen to you.”
Ms Berman said she “did everything you’re told to do” such as covering your drink with your hand and never leaving it alone. I dread to think what might have happened to me if I hadn’t found my friends,” she said.
“I think the man who gave it to me had to have had sinister intentions. He stayed trying to talk to me until I found my friends and then he backed off. I didn’t see him again after that.”
Ms Berman thinks nightclubs should introduce better checks. “Those people will always be there but clubs need to train staff on how to deal with the problem. How I was treated was terrible. I wish we had held on and not cancelled the ambulance.”
The student, who is in her third year at Leeds University, is now afraid to go out.
“There is a real culture of fear at the moment,” Ms Berman told the JC.
“It is terrifying. Having to tell my family what had happened was awful. They were devastated, angry and shocked.”
Ms Berman said she supported campaigns by women to boycott nightclubs to raise awareness of how their drinks are being spiked by men.
“As long as it leads to actual change,” she said.
“Nightclubs need to take responsibility and make sure staff have training and know what to look out for and how to deal with victims.”
An initiative called The Girls Night In was set up following a string of reports of women blacking out in clubs, believing their drinks were tampered with.
The group plans to stage boycotts in 43 university towns over the next fortnight.