The city of Austin hosted its second Overdose Education and Prevention Training for Austin bar and venue owners, as well as spoke about its Sip Safely pilot program.
"Today, we had about 15 people," Brian Block, the city's Nightlife and Entertainment Services manager, said. "I think it was about 8 or 10 different bars, clubs and venues. We've done this training once before,"
Bar owners and staff sat inside East Austin bar Hotel Vegas to learn how to keep customers safe from date rape drugs and how to reverse opioid overdoses.
"Travis County has the highest number of overdose events and fatalities by quite a large margin in the state of Texas," said Phil Owen, program manager at Communities for Recovery.
The city has been doing Overdose Education and Prevention Training with entertainment district bars and venues since 2023 but just launched the Sip Safely pilot program in April. Block said since then, participation has grown from 50 bars to 70.
Maryam Mosharraf –who owns Lucille, Augustine, Cheers Shot Bar and Friends Bar – participated in both programs.
"They sent out some test strips as well as information to our bartenders," Mosharraf said. "We have the posters posted, but essentially, the test strips detect any kind of drug in your drinks."
Mosharraf said with all of the bachelor and bachelorette parties and activity downtown, she makes sure to have the beverage testing strips on the bar as an extra precaution.
"I think it's, you know, a conversation topic. But once they learn more about it, people do tend to test their drinks," Mosharraf said. "We haven't had any issues with, you know, tampering."
Narcan kits, drink spiking prevention scrunchies, awareness posters and beverage testing kits were handed out.
"I think any kind of safety training that the city of Austin can provide is great for all the bars, and everyone's receptive if we want to have a fun environment for everyone," Mosharraf said.
The city plans to host five more training sessions. You can learn more information here about protecting your drink from spiking here.