Las Vegas has a roofie problem

My standard warning to newcomers in Las Vegas is always keep your drink covered, because I have known several women who got roofied and escaped predators only because friends whisked them home.

Roofie crimes are one of our city's great shames, as porn star Jesse Jane just found out firsthand, after being drugged to the point of passing out on the Strip around 1 p.m. Tuesday.

News of this broke on TMZ, which procured or secured video of the adult superstar knocked out completely, unresponsive in the desert sun, while people tried to carry her off the sidewalk.

When that video hit TMZ, the reason for Jane's knockout wasn't known, so as usual, many online commenters dumped on a news subject du jour with vigor, accusing her of personal problems.

But once Jane was up again, she took to TMZ and social media to slam commenters and lay out what happened:

At a hotel bar, she drank two shots, offered free by a stranger, she and her friends began walking down the Strip, near Planet Hollywood, boom, collapse. Her friends carried her to safety. When she awoke: vomiting.

On Twitter, @jessejane roared back to 318,000 followers, "And now for all the people saying mean things about me I hope you feel like jerks now that you know what really happened #haters."

Vegas clubs and bars are the usual gossiped-about hot spots for coward-losers sneaking in drugs such as Rohypnol, GHB and Xanax.

Just this spring, former NFL star Darren Sharper pleaded guilty to allegations he had sex with unwilling, drugged women who came to know him at Vegas nightclubs.

Another NFL star was accused of putting ecstacy in Vegas Champagne, although that person denied the accusation and has not been charged.

It's not just women who get drugged. Filmmaker Eli Roth once told Fox News that about a decade ago, he was hanging in a Vegas club with director Quentin Tarantino and rapper the RZA when two women posing as a mother-daughter-ish duo in town for a bachelorette party tried to take him away after he was roofied.

Tarantino stepped in and rushed Roth to safety.

"And the mother and daughter, that's what they do, they take you back to your room and they steal all your stuff and then you pass out!" Roth said, according to SFGate.com. "Literally Quentin Tarantino saved me from getting roofied in Vegas."

Obviously, many more not-famous people get roofied, occasionally making news (or posting their nightmares on YouTube), such as a man last year who accused strippers of drugging him and stealing $40,000 via his credit card.

Dear everyone: If you get roofied, it's not your fault. But please heed my constant nagging: Know your drink, cover your drink, don't leave your drink alone, protect your friends as you wish they'd protect you.

Dear roofie criminals: Please seek mental help. You will feel better about life if you do.

Dear club, bar and hotel execs: Maybe you could please take this a wee bit more seriously? I'm not saying you don't care. Just. Hike it up your priority flagpole next to "count money faster?"

Doug Elfman can be reached at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman. Find him on Twitter: @VegasAnonymous