Bravo’s newest reality star started her night off at a popular south Tampa restaurant and ended it with handcuffs and a drug test.
Below Deck, a reality show about the crew aboard an upscale yacht, was being watched by close to a million people in its premier season. Below Deck’s chief stewardess, Adrienne Gang, is known for being the hard-working, no-nonsense matriarch of the Honor staff. A native of Tampa, Gang was spending a night out with friends in south Tampa last December before her entire world turned upside down.
At the restaurant around 10:45 p.m., Gang had separated from her friends for the evening and was preparing to take a cab ride two miles back to her house. That was the last thing she remembered.
Gang finally regained awareness of her surroundings while being processed for booking at Orient Jail for battery after attacking a cab driver.
“I looked around and said ‘what’s going on? ‘I don’t belong here,’” Gang told police.
Confused about what had happened in that black hour, Gang kept asking the police officers.
“They said ‘you should know why you’re here,’” Gang said.
Once Gang was released the next morning, after losing hours of memory and knowing she hadn’t consumed enough alcohol to warrant blacking out, she immediately went to an independent testing facility and spent $550 for a drug test, 12 hours since parting ways with her friends. After a stressful 10-day waiting period, Gang finally received the results; she had been drugged at a toxic level with GHB.
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GHB, commonly known as the “Date Rape Drug”, is odorless, colorless and has such a slight salty taste that it is virtually undetectable when mixed with a drink. GHB can be made as a powder, tablet or more commonly now a liquid. The drug is easily made at home or sold on the internet as a kit using GBL, a solvent used for stain remover or paint thinner, and sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide, a solvent for drain cleaner.
GHB was originally synthesized in the 1960s and used as an anesthetic. In the 1980s the drug was passed around the bodybuilding circuit as a fat burner. In 1990 the FDA declared the drug to be unsafe and removed from stores. Within nine years, it became a common “party drug” and manufactured illegally.
According to Dr. Deborah Zvosec, research associate with the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Hennepin County Medical Center, more than 200 GHB-related deaths were found in the US, UK, and Canada between 1995-2005.
“While this is a sizeable number, it is most likely a significant under-representation of the actual number of GHB/analog-associated deaths,” Zvosec said.
Due to routine toxicology tests not detecting GHB and some states keeping death records private, it is nearly impossible to tell what the true number of deaths could be.
“Of the 226 (deaths), 207 deaths were classified as GHB-caused, in which toxic effects of GHB caused or contributed to death. Thirteen other deaths resulted from fatal accidents suffered while GHB-intoxicated, including 6 drownings (hot tubs, swimming pool), 6 motor vehicle collisions (3 drivers, 3 pedestrians), and 1 smoke inhalation; four of these deaths occurred with no co-intoxicant drugs or alcohol. And 6 deaths occurred with GHB detected, but its role in cause of death was undetermined,” Zvosec said.
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“The first thing he said was ‘you’re lucky to be alive,” Gang said.
Even 12 hours after being drugged, Gang had a deadly level of GHB in her system.
After spending nearly $20,000 in her defense, charges were officially dropped against Gang. She however had more work to do.
Gang immediately began using her new celebrity to bring attention and awareness to this far too common threat. Appearing on radio and television stations across the country, Gang focused a lot of her time on the Tampa media. Since she began publicly telling her story, numerous others have contacted Gang on her social media and website to share their experiences with her. One of those women was named Rachel*.
Rachel is a bartender at a popular south Tampa bar. On Aug. 13 Rachel was celebrating her birthday while working. Once her boss caught wind it was her birthday he offered to celebrate with drinks. He poured her a shot and each grabbed a glass of champagne while on top of the bar. He helped her climb down and the rest of the night is a blank.
Around noon the next day, Rachel woke up in her bed bruised and covered in her own vomit. When her roommate found her, she immediately headed to the emergency room. Her reception wasn’t exactly what one would expect in that situation.
“The two cops were actually in an argument about whether I should go to the crisis center. The one said I should, ‘definitely she should go.’ The other guy…he just didn’t think it was necessary because he didn’t care about anything that I said. He had more important things to do than listen to my story about how I was trying to proclaim that I didn’t actually get that drunk,” Rachel said.
Rachel has been able to answer a few of her questions about that night by speaking with friends and co-workers that were at the bar that night. She’s been told that friends were looking for her after she disappeared for 45 minutes. She resurfaced disheveled and incoherent.
She has been told that she was given a bottle of champagne that she carried around. Rachel continuously drank and offered some to her friends. A male employee remained by her side, “aggressively guarding” the bottle to keep others from consuming any.
When Rachel woke in her apartment she had no recollection of the night before past her boss helping her down from the bar.
“I went out and then I woke up the next day,” Rachel said. “I think they continuously dosed me because this was a 12-hour period.”
She is still waiting for answers. The results of her rape kit and toxicology report take 6-8 weeks but in the mean time, she wants to help protect others.
“I don’t know what happened to me. I don’t know who touched me, who violated me. I don’t know,” Rachel said. “This is the scariest thing that’s ever happened to me in my entire life. Nothing matches up. There’s nothing like not knowing what happened to you. And if I were to keep quiet, it would keep happening.”
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When Gang began talking to the media, she reached out the to Drink Safe Technologies who has sold testing strips and coaster that will test a cocktail for GHB and ketamine for the past eight years.
The testing strips and coasters are easily concealed in a purse or wallet and produce nearly instant results. The test pads can detect the drugs with a small drop of the drink. Once the drink has dried, if the test pads turn darker blue, the drink has been contaminated. The tests are not fail proof. Cocktails with a high acidity content or made of dairy are more difficult to test.
“These paper test strips are a lot cheaper (than similar products) and especially if you are talking about the restaurants supply them, or the bars supply them. Not to say this has happened at our place but to say it can happen anywhere,” Gang said.
Both women are hoping to bring awareness to this issue and to help protect others.
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If you or someone you know has been a victim of being drugged, there are great resources for help. The Crisis Center of Tampa Bay offers counseling, forensic examinations and toxicology testing. The center offers a hotline 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by dialing 2-1-1 from a Hillsborough landline or cell phone. They also offer an online hotline by going to www.211atyourfingertips.org.
“2-1-1 or 9-1-1. If you wake up the next morning and calling 9-1-1 may not be as crucial as calling 2-1-1. I’ve lived in Tampa for 17 years and didn’t know about (the Crisis Center),” said Gang. “If you’re in a bar right now and you think your drink has been dosed or you have the test strips with you and you can prove it, call 9-1-1.”
Rachel isn’t taking chances and is making sure to always be in contact with someone at home.
“Don’t trust anyone. Even the bartender making your drink. Always be in contact with someone…every hour. So if you’re a young woman and you’re going to go out with a group of friends, hey I know you don’t always want your parents involved or your big brother, but you might want to,” Rachel said. “You just don’t know. If you have someone who’s keeping an eye on you, it’s a lot less likely you’ll end up in a ditch or in jail in Adrienne’s case…have someone who’s coherent with you. And if you’re not going to do that, then I would suggest you don’t go out because it’s rampant in Tampa.”
*Name has been withheld to due to ongoing investigation
Resources: www.crisiscenter.com
www.cesar.umd.edu/cesar/drugs/ghb.asp
Image Credit: Bravo Tv, Below Deck