An increase in reports of spiked drinks in Boston has the City Council taking action.
On Friday they held a hearing on how to prevent the issue and how to better help victims.
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The City Council said they’ve been told there is a noticeable increase in spiked drinks in the city.
Boston University sent an email warning students of the problem. Students say their professors have also cautioned them.
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"A professor told us a story that a student told him,” one student told NBC10 Boston. “Some party somewhere that was making separate drinks for girls with roofies in them."
Representatives from the school were among those at the virtual hearing. One point they made was the need for underage drinkers to reach out if it happens to them - or if they see it happen to someone else - without fear of repercussions.
"Unless our students can reach out and I was underage I was drinking and here’s what we saw we are not going to understand how big this problem is."
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The spiking of drinks has become a citywide problem. Boston police are aware of 73 reports of drink spiking throughout 2022. The cases involve parties and establishments. To get a better handle on the problem, the licensing board wants to make sure bars and restaurants are reporting what they see.
The meeting was a starting point. Some of the ideas include increased training for restaurant and bar staff, creating standardized protocols to get a better handle on the number of cases and developing an online form for reporting.
Police are meeting with large venues next week to create a task force to deal with the issue.
