Could my 54 year old husband have had his drink spiked tonight

[MadKitty]

Just that really. He went for drinks after work with a colleague. We don’t drink much in general, maybe a couple of units a month. I picked him up from the station at 11pm, all the other passengers left and I could see on my phone that he was still on the platform. Called him and he was barely coherent. Saw him staggering down the platform holding onto a railing.

After 10 mins he gets in the car, he’s soiled himself, grey and uncommunicative. Talking weird and not making sense. Walked in the house and literally dropped to the floor. I know, I know….. you’re thinking he’s been on a bender. He’s had less than a bottle of wine, maybe 3 glasses from what I’m gathering. This is the opposite of who he is and how he drinks.

Nearly 3 hours later he’s still lying on the floor with his head in a bowl. He’s so confused and unlike him. 111 tell me he’s just drunk. I’m hoping in the next hour I can get him standing so I can get him in the shower. He said this came on suddenly during the 20 min train journey. Could this be spiking?

Anyone around who might have some insight?

Could it be food poisoning? My dad had very similar symptoms from campylobacteria a few weeks ago. If his diarrhoea continues it’s worth getting a GP appointment.

What on earth...? Perhaps it's an urban myth if you live in a hamlet on a remote island. I live in London and my sister in law was spiked while out for drinks with her friends last year. A girl I work with was spiked two weeks ago.

Of course it happens!

I think some people genetically can't tolerate alcohol though. I've got an intolerance as I am half Chinese, so I don't have the enzymes required to process/break down alcohol properly. (From what little I know of it lol). If I get too drunk, I feel dreadful, really hungover, very sick, go flushed etc.

Definitely something that is almost toxic to some of us (although alcohol is a poison in some ways, I guess 😅)

I think if you have a general intolerance you tend to know about it. What people don't realise is that you can have an intolerance or allergy to one ingredient which can come out of absolutely nowhere and someone who regularly drinks can suddenly be falling down and being ill on one glass.

The ambulance service has been subject to years of sabotage like all of the NHS but in a better world resources would be available to improve staff training re spiking. When so much ambo time is wasted by genuine drunks & numpties, it's hard for crews to spot the difference between "voluntarily off yer head" & "spiked". When you know there's a stack of next calls to get to, it can be hard to remember to ask all the right questions & when the mates of a possible victim might be drunk themselves it can be time-consuming to get useful answers about what's happened. It's always tempting to assume a victim is just drunk.
Rapid testing would also be a routine feature of suspected cases. Most of the relevant drugs clear your system fast so a victim is often in no state to make a police complaint while they still have circulating metabolites. The tests should be done both to improve diagnosis & treatment, & to provide victims with the evidence they need if they want to pursue a police complaint. (Yes, cost is an issue but one way to bring that down is to create a large volume market for tests. Hell, in a civilised world, developing better, cheaper tests is the sort of thing that govt scientific research grants could fund.)

Do you work for the police?