Well, here's a perfect argument for drinking before you get to the bar …

For years, research has suggested that women are vastly over-blowing incidences of getting drugged though their drinks.

In fact, one antiquated study called drink spiking a "phenomenon" and an "urban myth," reporting that "young women appear to be displacing their anxieties about the consequences of consuming what is in the bottle on to [rumors] of what could be put there by someone else." The general sentiment seemed to be that, just like global warming and Restless Leg Syndrome, drink spiking was all in a woman's head.

Of course, drinks have been getting spiked since the dawn of time. Women (and men) have been reporting it, but no one — not even the science community — has been listening all that attentively.

Recent research finally gives some validity to women's claims, though — and we don't mean, like, "some" validity. We mean, like, enough validity to fill the Pacific Ocean.

A new study published in the American Psychological Association's Psychology of Violence journal, titled Just a Dare or Unaware? Outcomes and Motives of Drugging ('Drink Spiking') Among Students at Three College Campuses makes the assertion that drink spiking is not a psychosomatic "urban myth," but a very real threat to ladies, especially on college campuses.

Nearly eight percent of students surveyed in the study say they've experienced being drugged with Rohypnol (roofies), Xanax, or some other substance that impaired the ability to either make decisions, or more seriously, maintain consciousness.

Even more disturbingly, 16.8 percent of those female students who'd been drugged report they'd been forced to have "unwanted sex" after being given a spiked drink. When researchers asked these women why they thought they'd been drugged, the most common answer was, grimly, "To rape us."

"Myself and the other girl I was out with were drugged, and then confronted behind the bar on the patio and one of the three men said 'I'm going to get in your pants tonight.," one woman reported.

"I know a guy that did that so he could get girls to sleep with him," said another.

Not all drink spiking is done with the intention of rape; some women say either they or someone they know had been drugged "for fun" or just to "see what happened."

Interestingly, this kind of drugging is actually something that's quite common among men whose drinks are spiked. Although women were far more likely to experience sexual assault after drinking a spiked beverage, men were miles more likely to be drugged by other men as a prank or shitty frat-like joke. Of course, if we're talking jokes here, drink spiking is really less of a "joke" and more like a full blown way to anoint yourself as the area's Largest Official Asshole.

This gender discrepancy in drink spiking behavior illustrates a huge gap in the way students think about drinking spiking and the actual consequences.

"For some of the men, they did not see spiking someone's drink as a big deal. For most of the women, it was pretty serious. They did not think that drugging someone was amusing or trivial at all," said Suzanne C. Swan, the study's lead researcher.

Clearly, this isn't a new problem, especially on campus. But, as Swan points out, it's one that needs to be looked at in novel ways if it has a snowball's chance in Guy Fieri's flaming hot bleached eight-ball hair of working.

The solution isn't just to tell students "watch their drinks" or to refuse random drinks at a party. 

Instead, Swan recommends an approach that focuses less on victims and more on the potential human works who're planning to spike someone's drinks.

"We need to start thinking about the point of view of the people who are doing the drugging," Swan told Broadly.  "That's why I wanted to have these kinds of questions in the survey. If a lot of those people think, 'Oh, this is just for fun, to liven up the party,' I'm guessing that a lot of those people aren't trying to be malicious. So one of the messages we need to try to get across is that even if you [yourself] don't intend to harm someone, you don't know what someone else can do once that person is passed out."

Education about consent also plays into this perpetrator-focused approach. Because naturally, drink spiking is rooted in a disrespect for, or misunderstanding of consent. 

"Just as you don't have the right to do something sexual to someone else without their consent, you should not be putting substances in someone's body without consent either," she said.

At this point in time, no one should have to say that to anyone, but given the crazy high percentage drinks being spiked, whether for harm or someone's misplaced idea of fun, we guess we have to say it … So: repeat after us …

Drink. Before. Going. Out.

Good.

Carry a flask. Pre-game at home. Fill a water bottle with vodka a la the days of high school. Whatever.

And most importantly, keep your shitty pharmaceuticals out of people's drinks. We get that  some people harbor a not-so-sublte God complex and think it's within their power to control someone else's body, but that is quite literally one of the most fucked up things you could do to someone. Chill out, dudes. Good talk!