The Drink Safely Miami campaign began during Alcohol Awareness Month this April.
Advocates including the Survivor’s Pathway, a local victims advocacy group, are spreading awareness for people to pay attention to what they drink in bars – and to keep an eye out when they put down their cup.
The majority of drink-spiking incidents occur at house parties, but bars and clubs are equally as risky. Spiked drinks can cause difficulty breathing, nausea, memory loss, disorientation, slurred speech, difficulty focusing and changes in body temperature.
Helena Poleo, spokesperson for Drink Safely Miami, said many cases of spiked drinks are unreported and that women are not the only victims.
“Everybody needs to be aware of where their drinks go,” said Poleo. “It has been estimated over 11 million women have been raped while intoxicated with alcohol and drugs.”
Contact the National Sexual Violence Hotline at 800-656-HOPE if you are a victim of assault or know someone who has been.
Daniela Zulueta is pursuing her master’s degree in global strategic communications and graduated from FIU with a bachelor’s degree in digital broadcasting in 2023. She also holds an associate’s degree in journalism from Miami Dade College. Zulueta loves the city of Miami and aims to share the stories of the citizens who live here and all over the world. Zulueta runs a social media platform called @Lifestyle_Miami where she works with local businesses and does community-based work. She had a paid internship with Televisa Univisión as a Step Producer and worked as a stage manager at NBC6 South Florida & Telemundo51. Now, she is part of cohort 8 and has a fellowship at the FIU Ratcliffe where she can work on branding herself and post-production of a podcast called Tech Conversations.
Jared Parker is an American broadcast media student with an area of concentration in global and sociocultural studies. Parker hopes to work in sports journalism in the future. Parker has a special connection to amateur MMA and hopes to be known as someone who gave amateur fighters a platform before anyone else.