June 5, 2006
'Roofied at Bar Rouge'
That's the title of a two-week-old post at ChinaRant.com that, if true, could signal an alarming (but not surprising) new trend in the Shanghai bar and club scene. Or it could just be an isolated incident. Either way, girls (and maybe guys, too) should travel in groups, watch their drinks and look our for their friends. The story told, which appears to come from a real person, is about a girl having a great time at Bar Rouge -- dancing, enjoying the view, trying not to be singed when they light the bar on fire, etc. -- and then suddenly being "slumped over the sink in the bathroom." She said this wasn't your normal drinking-related slump over the sink, either. They are convinced that someone had drugged her drink. "Roofie," as you may know, is short for Rohypnol, which is the trade name for Flunitrazepam, a powerful sedative and skeletal muscle relaxant commonly referred to as the "date rape drug."
Here is an excerpt from the story:
According to my friends, they had to have me carried out the bar, and into a waiting taxi. Worried that something was really wrong with me, they asked the cab driver to take us to the nearest hospital. The hospital was suspicious of what was going on, and decided to call the police, who in turn called the manager of the bar. The doctors, the police and the manager all insisted to my very panicked friend that I was simply drunk, clearly assuming that I was the type of girl who has had her stomach pumped on numerous different occasions (I haven't, I've never even passed out from too much alcohol before). Eventually, the manager realised that my friends were telling the truth and that my state was a result of someone drugging my drink in his high-end bar, not a result of 'a few too many'. He was kind enough to stay with my friends till they all decided that it would be okay to take me back to the hotel, and he paid the hospital for their services.
Scary stuff. Has anyone heard similar stories in Shanghai? Or elsewhere in China?
Image from The Roofie Foundation.


why am I not surprised this happened at Bar Rouge?
From a reader who wanted to remain anonymous:
That's terrible and the people who do it should have their balls ripped out. Hopefully some campaign can be started in Shanghai to warn people, as Chinese people may not be aware of it and expats may take some 'safety' of China for granted.
There was a big spate of these in Sydney and Perth (Australia) a few years back. The police and community services were obviously concerned and started a massive investigation. Over the course of a 2 or 3 month period everyone who claimed to have been a victom of a date rape drug was blood tested some 15 or 20 people (including a couple of boys) and not a single one of them tested positive to Roofie or any other `date rape drug'.
Is it real or is it an urban legend?
Here in Beijing, at least, I routinely get SMS ads for various illegal things including roofies sent to my phone. Looks like someone's responding to them.