Andrea Butler of Billerica says she had just one drink at the House of Blues bar during a Boston concert, and by the end of the night she was violently sick, foggy and missing hours of memory. Her friends noticed something else alarming too: her tongue had turned bright blue.
Butler told NBC Boston she believes someone put something in her drink while she was out with five friends on a Wednesday night. She said she does not remember getting home or talking to her family afterward, and that she woke up the following Thursday still foggy, floaty, and seeing things that were not there, according to the outlet's report, authored by Mary Markos. The incident happened just before Halloween weekend, a time period during which the Boston Police Department had already issued warnings to revelers about drink spiking.
Butler, who has two children and a job, called the experience disgusting and very scary, per the NBC Boston report. Drugs commonly used to spike drinks are typically colorless and odorless, which the outlet notes makes them difficult to detect in a crowded bar setting.
A Frustrating Path to Filing a Report
Getting the incident on record proved to be its own ordeal. Billerica police told Butler she needed to report what happened to Boston police, since that is where the concert took place, the station's report states. Boston police then told her she could not file the report over the phone and would need to do so in person — though per Boston police, Butler can report the incident at any police station in the city, not just one near the venue.
NBC Boston said it reached out to the House of Blues for a response to Butler's account. The outlet's report does not indicate what, if anything, the venue said in reply.
Police Warnings Around Halloween Weekend
Boston police had already flagged drink spiking as a concern ahead of Halloween weekend, warning revelers to watch for it, according to a police warning dated Oct. 29. The Boston Police Department urged anyone suspecting beverage tampering, or witnessing suspicious behavior near entertainment venues, to call 911 immediately. The department also urged suspected victims to seek emergency medical attention and promptly report incidents to assist ongoing investigations.
Police suggested several precautions: accept drinks only from bar staff or servers, never accept open drinks from strangers, and never leave a drink unattended. They also recommended considering drink covers or rapid-testing strips designed to detect drink-spiking drugs, and encouraged people to look out for friends or others who seem vulnerable, distressed or disoriented. Officers identified warning signs including unexplained dizziness, nausea, confusion, disorientation, or sudden intoxication inconsistent with the amount of alcohol consumed.
How Big Is the Problem in Boston?
Reported numbers on drink spiking in Boston vary widely depending on the source and reporting period, and have not been presented as a single consistent count. WCVB reported 73 alleged incidents during 2022, while Boston Magazine put the 2022 figure at 116 reports received by the Boston Police Department. For 2023, WBUR cited 107 cases, while Boston.com reported 108 incidents that same year. WBUR also reported that 2024 numbers dropped to 71, while Boston.com's data, current as of Dec. 10 of that year, showed 69 incidents reported.
WBUR noted that it's likely incidents in which people are drugged inside bars and clubs are underreported generally. Boston University police warned back in October 2022 about a trend involving scentless, colorless and tasteless drugs being slipped into drinks, and a Boston University health official told WCVB that area universities were hearing more reports of suspected drink spiking, though officials could not yet quantify how much the trend had changed. WCVB also reported that several women who attended concerts at MGM Music Hall at Fenway said their drinks had been drugged, and Boston Magazine detailed the case of a concertgoer named Skye who said she lost her memory after a show at Roadrunner in Brighton and later sought emergency-room treatment for repeated vomiting.
City and State Response
Boston's Office of Nightlife Economy and Licensing Board has announced an initiative to provide licensed businesses with drink-spiking prevention resources, according to Boston.com. In 2023, the Massachusetts Legislature asked the state's Department of Public Health to study ways to prevent people from being drugged in public, per WBUR. That same reporting noted that health officials recommended against bulk purchasing and distributing personal drink-spiking test kits, and a toxicologist at Mass General Brigham said the kits are not reliable because they can produce false positives or false negatives.
