File photo dated Oct. 9, 2020 (Press Association via AP Images).
In California it is about to get a lot harder for partygoers and revelers at bars and nightclubs to have their drinks “roofied” unwittingly.
A new law known as AB 1013 will go into effect in the Golden State this July that will require all bars and nightclubs to keep testing kits at their establishments that can detect drugs like Rohypnol, ketamine or the sedative GHB.
According to the bill, these business owners must offer to sell their customers the unexpired testing devices “at a cost not to exceed a reasonable amount based on the wholesale cost of those devices” or offer them for free.
There must also be signage at the facilities that read: “Don’t get roofied! Drink spiking drug test kits available here. Ask a staff member for details.”
The law goes into effect July 1, 2024, and will be repealed on Jan. 1, 2027, unless reinstated by the California General Assembly. The bill was proposed California Democrat Josh Lowenthal.
The kits will include a straw, sticker and strip to detect the “date rape drugs” in drinks.
According to the federal Office on Women’s Health, a study from 2010 to 2012 found a staggering 11 million people reported being raped or assaulted while intoxicated, drunk, drugged or high. In 2016, a study in the medical journal “Psychology of Violence” found the rate of drink spiking was even more widespread than initially thought.
That study sampled a group of 6,000 students at three colleges. Nearly 500 reported being drugged before, or just under 8%. In contrast, as Time pointed out, the survey also found that a whopping 83% of those surveyed said they had drugged someone else.
In California last August, a huge amount of GHB, or the “date rape drug,” was seized at a salon in San Francisco. Police, according to local affiliate KRON, uncovered 3.5 kilos of the drug being smuggled through a nail salon, or enough for more than 3,500 doses.
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