NON-CONSENSUAL Drug Trips!

[GypsyMuse]

I am posting this to try and find anyone else who has been dosed at BM without their knowledge or consent. I had this experience in 2015, and unfortunately didn't consider taking action to deal with the bad actors who did this to me. I have had years of trauma due to this, and it has really affected my ability to trust people. I think it's important that we consider this a crime at least as bad or even worse than rape. It's basically mind-rape, and the fact that it was NOT a consensual trip puts your brain into a state of mistrust, which can go on for years after the experience.

I recently heard from someone working at First Aid that this is STILL going on, and that other people have been dosed unknowingly as well. He said one woman almost died from it. I've decided it's worth it to post here to see if anyone else has had this experience. It seems like there are specific people involved, and maybe by connecting we can find them.

I went to BM for the first time in 2014, and it was the closest experience to heaven that I've ever had. I decided that this was my home and community, and that I would go every year if I could. I went back the next year, but it wasn't the same at all. Unfortunately, someone gave me a drink that had wax in it (which is the most concentrated form of THC you can get), only telling me that AFTER I had ingested it. And that was the closest to hell I had ever experienced.

THC and I do not get along at all! I avoid it like the plague due to many negative experiences with it. I also already had complex PTSD. The fact that this was a non-consensual drug trip only amplified this and put me in a prolonged state of fear and paranoia, which has had long-lasting trauma, greatly affecting my life and relationships. Even worse, there was a man who basically led me to the stage where it happened, stayed the whole time, and then led me back to where I was camping once my brain had become mush. But he did NOTHING to help me, reach out to me, stop what was happening, or get help. I was much too far gone to even consider getting help from anyone, and didn't really consider how evil this was until much later.

I didn't go back to BM until 2018, and it was a bittersweet experience, to say the least. It's the only time I've been back, and it definitely wasn't the same great experience I had the first year. The place I had originally assumed was a safe place where I could be free to radically express myself no longer felt like such a safe place. Once your trust has been shattered that way, it's almost impossible to get back to the carefree, enthusiastic person you once were.

Luckily I saw some notices posted around to show people where to get help if they are having a bad drug trip, so at least something is being done. But really, giving someone a drink with drugs in it without their knowledge or consent is a CRIME, and it should be punished. So if anyone knows anything about this, I would really like to know about it, what your experience was like, and possibly find the ones who have been doing this. Thank you!

[some seeing eye]

ePlaya always advises that people keep a watchful eye on their cups, including a lid to keep foreign substances (and dust!) out, and be aware of what they are consuming.

I do not appreciate an ePlayan making false statements about a drug death on playa due to involuntary dosing.

I do suggest that any participant in Black Rock City contact ESD by walking in to the central, 9 or 3 medical stations or contacting any ranger if they are having physical or psychological problems. Black Rock City has a variety of specialized psych resources, and ESD is experienced delivering individuals to the appropriate one, between them, or arranging evacuation, as necessary.

The US, including the West Coast, is awash in contaminated recreational drugs in all forms: liquid, powder, plant, pill, and tablet. The contaminants are proven fatal or produce chronic psychosis.

You may be confusing a death at Lightning in a Bottle with Black Rock City. While drugs were involved, there is no supposition they were delivered by involuntary dosing.

It is probably more effective for burners to get healthy and stay healthy personally than to undertake big battles in the wide world.

Black Rock City is under the legal supervision of the BLM under federal law. Know the law, it is stricter than many state laws, and it is enforced.

ePlaya is an arm of the Burning Man organization. The organization has strict rules about things that can and cannot be discussed here. Mods may delete the thread or comments.

[Token]

Sheesh SSE, that’s a bit strong, innit?

GMuse has a point. A strong point at that.

All you got to do is look at all the institutions available on Playa to deal with the fringe realities of bad and criminal behavior at TTITD.

BRR, ESD, Zendo, BED … and many more official and unofficial places dedicated to harm reduction.

I don’t know what triggered you brother, but you’re off on this one.

BRC, like any city of 50+k residents has all the baggage and bad behavior just like the real world.

Pretty much every crime we got on the books has happened out there over a 1/4+ century.

To GMuse, so sorry this happened to you.

Yes, it happens pretty much every year. Sometimes it’s predatory/malicious, sometimes it’s misguided silliness, but it is always traumatic for the victim.

Reach out to the Zendo Project. They are out there every year serving the community.

Genuinely good people with the right professional credentials to deal with just this topic, and do this type of service year round.

Keep on talking about it Muse, it’s good medicine.

[Elorrum]

The place I had originally assumed was a safe place where I could be free to radically express myself no longer felt like such a safe place. Once your trust has been shattered that way, it's almost impossible to get back to the carefree, enthusiastic person you once were.

Thank you for posting your experience. I am sorry it happened, and hope it can serve as a warning to others, and that you will live with it with a lessening sense of trauma over time. Where there is a great atmosphere of trust, there will be predators seeking to take advantage of it. Burning Man is no exception. Levon Helms spoke of what he called “an adult portion” of life experience, something we are grateful to have survived, and take the lesson, and hopefully find a free feeling again going forward with that knowledge.

Dosing is a horrible act. Considering the consequences, more people should be wary of it. THC is not an innocuous drug to share, tolerances vary greatly. Edibles can be an overwhelming and frightening experience. It’s a different experience, even to people who think they know it well, processing the drug through the liver vs absorption through the lungs, and the rate it metabolizes and dissipates in the blood stream. I’ve seen voluntary “let me try that,” go horribly wrong as well.

[GypsyMuse]

To some seeing eye,

I did NOT say that someone died, I said that someone ALMOST died. I was told this by the man who helped save her life. Please read my post thoroughly before posting inaccurate information, it will only confuse people.

I also had NO IDEA that someone would even consider DELIBERATELY giving me a drink with a drug in it without my knowledge. This was not an accident, it was intentional. I'm warning people and hoping to get more information because someone is doing this INTENTIONALLY, and someone like me, only a second-year burner, didn't know it was something that someone would intentionally do. Some things are accidental, and I am definitely much more careful now, only it's much too late. But I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about the fact that this was INTENTIONAL and someone KNOWS what they are doing. That is a CRIME.

[GypsyMuse]

Token,

I read your post, and want to say THANK YOU for understanding! The other man's advice is good, but it's too late for it, the whole thing already happened. Unfortunately, I have to live with the effects of it now and just be much more careful. I'm still disturbed by the fact that it was intentional, and that was my main point. But I really appreciate that, the first response blew me away with all of the misinterpretation of what I was saying. Your reply helped me a lot.

[ygmir]

I got dosed, I forget what year, but it was while watching the "rocket" not take off....probably acid, since the sky kept melting into colors matching the fireworks at the moment.

[lucky420]

Someone accused me of dosing them with one of my infamous cookies. Yeah I told the twat what they were to begin with and did not appreciate her drama. This was several years ago before weed was legal in NV (yeah I know federal land bs).

I still don’t like or trust that person

[Elorrum]

I’ve had similar results sharing consensually with people who had very little or no tolerance. They had bad experiences and blamed me. Even with a big caveat, and, “maybe just a little.” some have coughed for a half hour, glared angrily, “what did you do to me?!”gotten scared, and one friend when very drunk, went still, vomited in a wastebasket, and went to bed. They relish telling the story of what I did to them. I guess I did do something, did not consider the strength to the uninitiated, and now I think of their experience before sharing. I don’t want the drama, or blame. It’s legal here, they can ask someone else, or get their own.

[lucky420]

Oh I warned her and she and her hubby laughed me off. Fuck them she went around telling people I dosed her. The husband was weirdly passive aggressive with me…be funny as fuck if he stepped to me now. I’m not as nice as I used to be

goddamn it’s early yet…I think it’s going to be a cussing day

Oh and it’s snowing this morning, again