Except it's not a hypothetical. It happened this past weekend.

A clubgoer with a severe allergy reports spending fifteen minutes arguing with a bouncer at the SoMa venue just to keep their life-saving medication. The bouncer reportedly tried to confiscate the EpiPen, nearly kicked them out, and only relented after other patrons in line started backing them up. He also apparently told the patron their name needed to be printed on the EpiPen — a requirement that doesn't exist.

So let's talk about what actually exists: the Americans with Disabilities Act. And here's where this story gets almost poetic. As one local pointed out, 1015 Folsom has already been through this exact situation before. The Department of Justice once investigated the venue for denying entry to a patron with a peanut allergy who needed to carry an EpiPen — and the club entered into a settlement agreement over it. It's literally in the ADA archives.

You'd think a venue that's already been on the wrong side of a federal ADA complaint would, I don't know, brief the door staff. But as one SF resident put it, "the security at 1015 has been excessively stringent every single time I've been, so this story does not surprise me at all."

Look, we get that nightclub security exists for real reasons. Venues have legitimate concerns about needles and weapons. But an EpiPen is not a weapon — it's an auto-injector that keeps people from dying of anaphylaxis. There is no universe in which confiscating one is reasonable, and in this universe, it's almost certainly illegal.

Another local noted they now tape their pharmacy label to their EpiPen case "out of paranoia for this exact scenario," adding, "We shouldn't have to."

They're right — they shouldn't. And 1015 Folsom, of all places, should know better. The club's ownership needs to train their staff on ADA compliance before a bouncer's ego trip turns into another federal complaint — or worse, a medical emergency at the door.