ROUND ROCK, Texas (KXAN) — For Dimna Contreras, a night out with her boyfriend and another couple at a family restaurant changed everything.
She ordered a beer while her boyfriend ordered a margarita. It was their first drink of the night.
“He said you’re going to need to drive, this margarita is hitting me, this must be a strong margarita,” Contreras said.
Contreras didn’t think much of it at that point, but then things spiraled.
“I could see that his behavior was different, he was acting out of it,” she said. And the next morning, “he said ‘no, I don’t remember what happened after that first drink.”
Contreras said police took her case immediately, and urged them to go get a toxicology screen as soon as possible. They went to the hospital where Contreras works to get the test, but it came up clean. However, she said when she told police that, detectives told her a lot of the drugs used to spike drinks nowadays are synthetic, so they won’t always pop up on tests.
Police confirmed they’re investigating the case, but said they couldn’t release any details at this time.
Contreras posted about her experience on social media and said people flooded her inbox.
“They would say they didn’t speak up because by the time they realized, we knew it was already either out of our system, or they were synthetic drugs, or they were too ashamed,” she said.
She’s now using her case to speak out about the dangers of drugging, urging people to not only be aware of their surroundings and trust their instincts, but also to report any suspected drugging instances to authorities right away.
Where can I get drug tested if I think my drink was spiked but I don’t want to go to police?
When you report a drugging to law enforcement, the Austin Police Department said it coordinates to help get you a toxicology screen as soon as possible.
Victim advocates across various platforms note that due to the traumatic nature of getting drugged, people may not be ready to come forward to law enforcement immediately.
The SAFE Alliance said the following options are available if you don’t want to go to law enforcement immediately, but still want to get tested before any potential drugs have the chance to leave your system.
- Call SAFE at (512) 267-7233 to get connected with an advocate who can walk you through the necessary processes
- You can get a sexual assault exam through SAFE even if your memory is foggy and you’re not sure if you were assaulted. These exams include a toxicology screen. Those results aren’t processed until/unless you file a police report.
- SAFE can refer you to a clinic for testing
- You can purchase at-home tests at a pharmacy. A photo of the most extensive one we found at an Austin CVS is below. It tests for 14 different drugs. While it does not test for the official roofie drug, it tests for other strong sedatives and opiates that can have similar effects. Tests we found ran between $27 to $38.
Some area hospitals also say they have the capability to run drug tests that detect date rape drugs.