What are Benzodiazepines? Meaning explained as Oregon dad Michael Meyden accused of serving Drug-laced smoothies at daughter’s sleepover

A 57-year-old Oregon dad, Michael Meyden, is reportedly facing multiple charges after drugging his daughter’s friends with Benzodiazepines during a sleepover at his Lake Oswego home. It prompted one of the friends to desperately text her mother pleading to collect her immediately. The incident reportedly occurred in August 2023 when Michael Meyden’s 12-year-old daughter invited friends over for a sleepover.

According to court documents cited in KLTV, the investigation into the alleged drugging began on August 26, 2023, when Lake Oswego police were called to the Randall Children’s Hospital emergency room, where three girls who attended the sleepover tested positive for having ingested benzodiazepine.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, benzodiazepines known as benzos and downers are ‘depressants’ used to treat insomnia and panic attacks. The drug, which slows down the nervous system, may cause “sleepiness and relaxed mood,’ and it may also cause “amnesia, hostility, irritability, and vivid or disturbing dreams.”

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Michael Meyden is accused of serving benzodiazepines laced mango smoothies to his daughter's friends

According to ScallyWag And Vagabond, a since-deleted LinkedIn profile showed Michael Meyden, a graduate of Arizona State University, is a senior director of human resources and has dual citizenship in the United States and Canada. According to Oregonian, Meyden and his wife filed for divorce in 2023 and had been living in Lake Oswego at the time of the sleepover.

Detailing the incident, KTLA reported on the night of the alleged incident, Michael Meyden reportedly served drug-laced mango smoothies to four of his daughter’s friends who were attending a sleepover at his home.

The children reportedly watched movies and did facials before Meyden offered them mango smoothies and “insisted they drink them,” although the drinks had “tiny white chunks throughout and sprinkled on top.”

According to court documents cited by the outlet, all four girls were each given two servings of the mango smoothie and when one of the victims refused to consume the beverage, the suspect allegedly made a new batch and insisted the girl drink it.

Meyden is accused of making multiple trips to the basement where the girls were sleeping, adjusting one girl’s arm, and repositioning her on the bed. One of the victims reportedly told police she “stayed awake out of fear that Mr Meyden might do something” to her friend. Another terrified victim reportedly sent her mother a message, pleading to be picked up.

The text read:

“Mom please pick me up and say I had a family emergency. I don’t feel safe. I might not respond but please come get me (crying emoji), Please. Please pick it up. Please. PLEASE!!”

The parents reportedly alerted other parents and when they showed up at his doorstep to pick up their children, Meyden allegedly resisted allowing them to take their daughters home, saying they were sleeping. The parents took the girls straight to the hospital, where all three tested positive for benzodiazepine.

Investigators, who were called to the hospital, noted one of the girls had “walked slowly and used the assistance of her mother for balance, her eyelids were heavy, and she spoke slowly.”

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Michael Meyden pleaded not guilty to the charges leveled against him

The suspect, Michael Meyden, reportedly turned himself into police last week on February 28 and was charged with three counts of causing another to ingest a controlled substance, three counts of application of a schedule-4 controlled substance to another, and `three counts of delivery of a controlled substance to a minor.

Michael was reportedly booked into the Clackamas County Jail before posting a $50,000 bond and pleaded not guilty to the charges leveled against him.