Imagine planning a trip to indulge in the most enlightening trip you could experience as a student in college. Israel could be seen in the distance and Jessica Fletcher was awaiting the experience of a life time with her close friend. Fletcher realized that this trip would be something she would have to cope with the rest of her life after a night took a turn for the worst.
Fletcher had arrived in Israel with her friend at the time, Amy*. The pair had an insatiable bond and had been friends since the age of 8.
“I thought my experience was going to bring us a lot closer, we were always good friends but not the best of friends,” Fletcher said. “I thought the trip was going to make us have a stronger relationship we could have the rest of our life.”
When Amy* arrived at the hostel with a bag of unknown pills, Fletcher became concerned about the context of their trip. Things began to get stranger and stranger as Amy* revealed more about her character.
Fletcher knew that Amy* had come from a well-off family, so when she disclosed that she wanted to try and sell some of the pills to some of the students at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Fletcher knew something wasn’t right.
Fletcher and Amy decided to go out to a club called Clara in Tel Aviv where Fletcher had already intended on limiting herself to one drink so that her senses would remain sharp. Keeping a clear head was one of her biggest priorities Fletcher said.
“I woke in the hostel about 4:30 in the morning, I was sitting on the floor and the first thing I saw was blood all over my shorts,” Fletcher said. “The blood scared me so badly at that moment I felt like I couldn’t breathe anymore.”
It was then that Fletcher realized that she had no idea what had happened the night before. Someone had spiked her drink and the fear and panic began to sink in.
Amy* began talking to her, telling her that she would be okay, claiming that she didn’t know why Fletcher had blood all over her. The important thing was that she had gotten her home safely and that she didn’t have the blood on her then, Fletcher said. Fletcher walked with difficulty to the bathroom with her friend and saw the cuts on her chin and lips.
A few other friends had been roofied as well, but their reactions were not as panicked as Fletcher and this became even more concerning. A female friend pulled Fletcher aside concerned about the both of them. A male friend of hers who had experienced being roofied before, calmly mentioned that “everyone gets roofied in their lifetime.”
Roofies have a stigma of being the date rape drug. According to Brown University, 70 percent of college students have engaged in unwanted sexual activity due to drug and alcohol impairments.
With the fear that she may have been raped, Fletcher went to the gynecologist to be tested. No STI’s or STD’s were found providing some relief.
Fletcher said that she remembered last seeing her beverage in the rest room with Amy* and things began to get even more complicated.
Things seemed to be as bad as they could get. Being in a foreign country unclear of what happened to you the night before had to be the worst case scenario, but more crucial details began to unravel as the nightmare of a night Fletcher was living spiraled deeper.
$1,700 had been drained from Fletcher’s bank account that night and she had no idea. Someone had stolen her credit card and charged the club under her name. The charges were all approved by Fletcher, yet she had no recollection of signing anything or having the ability to sign for the purchases.
When Fletcher first approached Amy* about this situation at the club, all she could tell her was that Fletcher kept on repeating “I’m not well, I’m not well…” but appeared to be fine.
It was then that Amy* confessed to using Fletcher’s card even if she was not able to give full consent. The friendship between the two had fallen apart and Fletcher’s trust in Amy* also fell apart. Amy* paid Fletcher back for what she had stolen from her, but the trust stolen from the friendship still remains missing. Fletcher and Amy* have not spoken since the incident.
Roofies are not something out of a movie like The Hangover. They are not a fun club drug to “lose control.” They are something that can ruin lives and can even kill someone. Fletcher is still coping with what happened to her that night in Israel. The experience itself was frightening enough, but to lose a friendship over it added to the impact. It does not matter how conscious someone is of their surroundings, it could be a stranger or a close friend that takes away your control.