The Anonomous Drop: High school and college students should be aware of the intentions behind roofies

*Names changed to protect identity

Fresh out of sorority recruitment, University of Kansas freshman *Molly Smith was attending her first college party, a jersey-themed event hosted by the Delta Tau Delta fraternity. 

As Smith’s first night out at KU, she made a point to follow all the safety precautions she had set for herself:

She would watch her drink being poured.

She would stay with her group of close friends. 

She wouldn’t get blackout drunk. 

The next day, Smith woke up at 2 p.m. feeling hungover after only a seltzer and two glasses of wine. She doesn’t know how dozens of videos of her at the party seemingly appeared in her Snapchat memories. She doesn't remember walking home with a group of friends, or even going to bed. Smith was perplexed by her extreme hangover despite feeling safe the night before. 

The next day, unexplained synthetic drugs were found in her system.

Now-sophomore Smith warns that roofieing, or the act of drugging someone’s drink without their knowledge, is a common issue among college students that high schoolers should be cautious of at college bars and parties. 

According to Florida House Experience, a mental health and substance abuse treatment center, one in 13 college students has been drugged without their knowledge. Additionally, Alcohol.org reports that 19% of roofies happen to high school students. 

Roofies — also called date rape drugs — can also create a space for perpetrators to seek out vulnerable individuals, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse. The altered mindset allows people who have been roofied to be more susceptible to sexual abuse. 

The party Smith attended felt "classy" — they were serving wine. Sealed plastic containers were being poured into people’s mouths or cups, and as a self-proclaimed wine person, Smith couldn’t help but pour another. 

The rest of Smith’s night is blank. She remembers almost nothing. She entered a state of “drunkness” she’d never been in before. 

“I just have never been that out of it, ever,” Smith said. 

Smith never drank much before college, and her high school health class didn't prepare her for her first night out as a college student. She tried to convince herself that her tolerance must be low to justify her memory loss and extreme hangover.

Still, her blackout seemed disproportionate. There was no way three drinks made her forget nearly everything from the night. 

She couldn’t have been drugged, right? The boxed wine she was drinking was sealed. 

“I was too naive to think that people could syringe roofie into a college girl's drink,” Smith said.

After feeling nauseous and dizzy the day after the party, Smith called her mother, who took her to the Children's Mercy emergency room, where the drugs were found in her system.

The wine served at the party was laced. 

Smith said she doesn’t know exactly what drugs she ingested. She doesn’t smoke or vape or do “any of those things.”

If someone has been roofied, confirmation comes through blood tests, which is how Smith found out. But Youth Program Specialist at Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault Maddie Bell said people who know their bodies’ tolerance can confirm roofies based on how much they drank that night. 

In a situation like this the best thing someone can do is trust their own body to confirm if they’ve been roofied, according to Bell. 

“It's talked about in the sense of risk reduction, of placing more of the blame on the victim instead of the person who’s meaning to cause harm,” Bell said. “A lot of victim blaming comes from, ‘How much were you drinking?’”

SM East Alumni Connor Bykowski and Elise Madden work in Lawrence bars and say it’s hard to differentiate whether someone is really drunk or has been roofied. 

The line between being blackout drunk and actually roofied is something that can keep victims from speaking up, according to Bell. 

Smith, however, filed a police report at the emergency room after a confirmed roofie. And she wasn’t the only one. Fifty other KU students had filed similar reports regarding the previous night by the time she called.

Smith's friends told her there was police activity on her dorm floor for girls who attended the party. Multiple ambulances were also stationed along the freshman dorms because of the mass drugging.

Nearly a year and a half after filing the police report, Smith still hasn’t received any follow-up. According to Lawrence police records, from January to September 2025, the unresolved case rate was 53.6%. 

When dealing with a roofie situation, the police will talk with the victim, the people they were with, bartenders or anyone who might have relevant information, according to SM East student resource officer Spencer Patrick. 

But most of the time, if someone is roofied in a bar, bartenders and bouncers won’t have much information, according to Bykowski, who works as a bouncer. It’s nearly impossible for workers to watch every drink to prevent someone from spiking it while also checking IDs and controling crowds. 

To stay safe, Madden, a bartender, makes it a point to toss any drink that has been left out. If anyone is nervous about their drink being spiked at Bullwinkle's bar in Lawrence, she would rather make them a new drink than risk it. 

Despite these efforts to reduce harm, nothing can stop a person with malicious intentions from drugging someone, Bell said. The ultimate goal of these drugs is to incapacitate a person so someone can take advantage of their consent and their body.

Part of the bouncer training, Bykowski says, includes dealing with potential sexual harassment that can come after someone is roofied. In such a case, bouncers will respond to the situation immediately. 

After blacking out and suspecting being roofied, sometimes victims will go through a Sexual Assault Nurse Exam to see if any DNA is left over from the assailant. These exams can yield few results because most date rape drugs leave the system within hours, according to Bell.  

And the roofie problem isn’t limited to college campuses. Patrick has been on call for roofie investigations from the day after an incident occurs. In 2024, the Prairie Village police department had 188 drug and alcohol-related arrests and eight sex offenses or rape arrests.

While sexual assault may be the intention behind some roofies, these drugs can also be slipped into the wrong person's cup to take advantage of someone else. That’s why Patrick advises to never drink from an open can. 

SM East senior *Tommy Dunn agrees. He wasn’t the intended target of a roofie. But when he was at a small house party with his girlfriend, senior *Abby Jones, Dunn set his beer down and mistakenly grabbed a different open beer can, downing the remaining alcohol. 

“We knew that some of the guys there were drug dealers,” Jones said. “But neither of us do any of that, so we weren’t concerned.”

Fifteen minutes later, Dunn started violently throwing up blood, and Jones knew it wasn’t an alcohol tolerance issue. 

“I've seen him drink a full bottle of vodka and be fine,” Jones said. “So the fact he was even yakking was kind of confusing.”

After a frantic call, Dunn’s dad picked the two up and took them to urgent care. Dunn couldn’t even open his eyes. 

When Jones opened Dunn’s eyes to see pinpoint pupils, a telltale sign of overdose, she decided to stop at her house to administer two doses of Narcan, which made him perk up. 

Though Dunn was acting extremely loopy at the hospital, he was able to talk. After several hours and many tests, he was declared stable and went home.

Even with risk reducers, the predominant issue of roofieing lurks among college campuses, including KU. In a Harbinger Instagram poll of 188 people, 15% have been roofied before. 

While Bell says the victim can’t truly prevent roofies, she recommends always watching drinks and never drinking from an open can. Additionally, she advises going out with a charged phone, setting firm boundaries and having a designated driver.

“A part of community is caring and looking out for each other, so watch out for your friends,” Bell said. “Watch out for people you don't know, too. If there's another girl or someone who looks like they might be in trouble, offer them a hand, but do it in a way that you can stay safe.”