Topping off your drink with a top on

Friday, April 7, is National Beer Day and Texas Tech students undeniably love to drink. The Broadway shuffle would not exist on a Thursday night if Tech students did not drink. However, going out for a drink is not as safe as people think it is due to drink spiking. 

Picture going out to a bar because it is National Beer Day, you make a couple new friends and you pique the interest of some charmer. 15 minutes later, you’re fading in and out of consciousness and the rest of the story is only told by people who claimed you “just got too drunk.” You have no idea what happened except you just wanted to go out for a beer. 

Drug-facilitated sexual assaults do occur but the Department of Justice reports that only 36 percent of drug-facilitated sexual assaults are reported because most victims can rarely remember the situation. 

It is unfortunate, but we cannot combat the evil of drink spiking overnight, however bars should serve drinks with lids to prevent drug slipping into your drink. 

According to Save the Student, a student money site, drugs like gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), tranquillizers (like Valium), rohypnol (commonly known as a roofie) and ketamine are the most common drugs used to spike drinks. These drugs come in various material forms and are hard to trace in the body, while having similar symptoms to being drunk. 

The possibility of any of these drugs being slipped into a drink is eliminated when you put a lid over your drink. Tech’s Risk Intervention & Safety Education (RISE) supplies students with drink covers for the sake to protecting your drink. If Tech’s offices are providing the means to protect their students, bars across the street can do the same by providing lids. 

Refuting these ideas to create a safe environment only judges the integrity of the bars supplying drinks to students. 

I polled Tech students on Twitter to see if they have endured or know someone who has had their drink spiked. 22 percent of students said they have had their drink spiked, 67 percent of students said they knew someone who has had their drink spiked and the remaining 11 percent said no. 

Tech students clearly suffer from what should be considered a crisis, might I say an epidemic, which is drink spiking. Yet a simple solution, such as supplying a lid or a cover with a drink, is another step into creating a safer bar environment. 

If you happen to go out for a drink this weekend, make sure you do not take drinks from strangers or leave your drink unattended. Go out with friends who will watch out for you and cover your drink. 

If you or someone you know has suffered from a drug-facilitated sexual assault, please reach out to the Title IX office and file a report. Your voice will be heard. 

Title IX link: https://www.depts.ttu.edu/titleix/

National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-4673

Texas Tech Crisis Helpline:  (806) 742-5555.