Bill would require hospitals test for date rape drugs if victim suspects they've been targeted
HINGHAM – What started as an early dinner for a group of South Shore mothers took a scary turn.
Sara Mason Ader and her friends went out for a bite and drinks in downtown Hingham and one of them became disoriented at the table.
"She just stopped making sense. Her eyelids were very heavy. She was wavering around in her chair," Mason Ader told WBZ-TV.
Something was just off about the grandmother in her 60s and her friends suspected she may have been drugged.
"One of us, the one who wasn't driving, ordered a second round," Mason Ader explained. "We suspect that second round was the tainted round."
They drove her home and the victim's husband, a doctor, rushed her to the emergency room worried she might've been roofied. But to his surprise, the hospital wouldn't run the necessary tests to find out. There wasn't a standard protocol.
"They tested her for stroke, heart attack. Tested her blood for cocaine, heroin. Everything but the date rape drug," she said. "How can the hospitals not be testing for that?"
Their state senator, Republican Patrick O'Connor, was equally as confused and concerned – signing onto a bill that would require hospitals to test for date rape drugs if a victim suspects they've been targeted.
"Without that critical evidence, there's nothing the police department can do. There's no data set, there are no numbers out there," said Senator O'Connor.
The bill's author, Senator Paul Feeney, said such a law would encourage more drugging victims to speak out and give police the necessary tools to investigate these crimes.
"A crime's been committed. They should have that information, know exactly what's in their system… go back to the venue and say look, we need to put an end to this," said Sen. Feeney.
Ader's friend recovered, but she wants this to be a lesson that this isn't happening to just twenty-somethings at college bars. Mothers in their fifties and sixties have become targets.
She wants people to keep an eye on their friends and their drinks.
"This could happen to anyone, anywhere."