... to wonder how prevalent "spiking" really is?

[SeptemberGurl]

There's been a few reported incidents this term already at the Uni where my DD2 is studying. She is in her final year, and over the past years she's told me about two suspected incidences with her close friendship group.

I wish there were some better data on this. Is it really that common?

Hard to know if it's alcohol or spiking unless bloods or urine are taken swiftly. It certainly happens and it never should but I do think there are many more suspected spikings than actual ones. There are very few reports that actually relate to further crimes being committed i.e. sexual assaults or robberies.

There was a news article about this a few weeks ago when the reporter said 'everyone knows someone it has happened to' and I don't, but I asked my daughter who is at uni and she did.

I don’t think it’s common at all I don’t know anyone it’s happened to

My son and two of his female friends were all spiked last Summer. One of the girls had been spiked before so recognised the feeling straight away. They had only had one drink but were all very ill, fell unconscious and one of them had all their money stolen. Really scary stuff, I honestly don’t feel like it’s safe for people to go out to bars anymore until something is done about this. There needs to be much better education about this and people need to know how they can protect themselves- not leaving drinks unattended etc.

Also just to say that my son is 20 and says he knows a lot of people who this has happened to- I think it’s very common.

My boss had to pick her daughter up on Halloween as the girl she had gone out with was “drunk”. She ended up in hospital where they tested her and she had been drugged. Boss daughter only drinks shots so no one can spike her drink!
Someone in my team said her daughter (same age) had stayed in and had a Halloween party with friends purely because they don’t want their drinks spiked.

I know a lot of people in my age range that have claimed to be spiked over the years, however I also suspect a few just had a few too many drinks. There definitely seems to be an epidemic in the city near me (Sheffield) as I see girls on facebook sharing posts. Personally it's not happened to me, but nights out are few and far between with DC!

I don't think it's as common as it's being portrayed, though obviously its wrong/disgusting, even if it's rarer than reported.

I went to a small house party about 10 years ago with some very close friends. We were all drinking wine, having a lovely evening when suddenly I felt dreadful. The room started spinning, I could hardly walk - I vomited non-stop, I seriously felt ill and parts of the evening I can't remember.

None of my friends use drugs and even if they did, they wouldn't spike anybody - I didn't feel like I'd even drank that much - I just put it down to some weird chemical glitch.

Had I been in a nightclub I would've been convinced I'd been spiked.

I got accidentally drugged once, in that I drank someone else's drink by accident that they had put MDMA in.

Other than that, I don't know anyone who has been spiked with a date rape drug except one, who was a victim of Worboys. I didn't hear about it at all at uni and I went to one that supposedly had a rape culture problem. I don't doubt it does happen though and it's a shame as you say that it's so hard to detect and assess the problem properly.

I knew several people who had drinks spiked in the 90's. One was raped.

I suspect its a lot more common than we expected because most people just think they drank too much.

I think it's almost impossible to determine how prevalent it. Some people may have too much to drink and think they've been spiked and others may be spiked but put it down to having too much to drink. Things like rohypnol clear the system quite quickly so testing after the event is not very useful.

I have a DD at uni and she thinks she has been spiked … rarely drinks and had only drunk one on this night out, the second drink had her shaking and vomiting and she doesn’t remember her friends getting her home. The same has happened to quite a few of them.

Having worked in bars and pubs, and also bought/taken my fair share of drugs in my time, I really don’t think it’s that common

I’ve seen an awful lot of people, especially women, and especially ‘new drinkers’ completely unable to judge their alcohol intake and tolerance

Even know, I still get caught out having a glass of wine on an empty stomach, or having a friend make me a G&T that’s stronger than I’m used to, and I’ve been drinking for 20+ years

Also, I’ve never ever come across a dealer who sells any sort of date rape drugs, so where are these spikers supposed to be buying them? You can’t exactly Google rohypnol and get it delivered

Even GHB, which is a relatively common drug on the gay chem sex scene isn’t that easy to buy.
And it’s very hard to dose properly, making it very easy to overdose on

So if drink spikers were using GHB to spike women, they would be getting it wrong frequently enough for there to be widespread cases of women absolutely passed out for 24hrs and in desperate need of medical attention

Yet all the reported cases are ‘a bit wobbly on their feet and disoriented, blurry’ etc

And these cases all seem to happen around freshers week and then not during the rest of the year?

None of this adds up to something that’s endemic, or even close to matching up to the number of alleged cases reported

It is far far more likely that the cases are from people drinking too much too quickly, drinking drinks much stronger than they are used to, or drinking on empty stomachs
Or all of the above

I don't know if it's that common, clearly something has gone on recently whereby there have been some incidents, but I suspect sometimes when people think it's spiking it's actually that they have drunk more than they realised/mixed tdifferent types of drinks/haven't eaten much beforehand.

I'm not a heavy drinker and there have been two times I have felt very, very weird, dizzy and woozy after drinking - one time because I'd eaten very little that day, the other time I'm not sure but I think it's just I drunk quite a lot of different kinds of drinks in one evening. I started feeling weird after a round at a (male) gay bar, so pretty sure no one there was trying to drug me. It may also have been because of where I was with menstrual cycle as well, as that could affect alcohol impact.

Absolutely not victim blaming here, as responsibility is always with the attacker, without question. Just saying that women in particular should be aware, for a whole number of reasons, that a lot of things can affect how they are impacted by drinking and perhaps that is more salient advice than 'you have to watch your drinks like a hawk because there's chance they'll be spiked' when actually making yourself unwell/confused is more likely to come from a combination of factors that may make alcohol hit you harder than you expect.

My dd (in first year of uni) was telling me that there are reports of people being spiked via a needle in their back. The student union warned them about it apparently. Like many pp, I have no idea how prevalent this is.

My cousin was drugged 20 years ago. She was in her 30's.

@Duckdown

My dd (in first year of uni) was telling me that there are reports of people being spiked via a needle in their back. The student union warned them about it apparently. Like many pp, I have no idea how prevalent this is.

There was a thread on this recently…

All the medical posters basically said it’s nearly impossible to inject someone without them realising with any drug that would cause the reactions being reported
Let alone that any sort of drug to give these reactions are not common street drugs that people can get hold of

And a lot of the reported injection sites - backs of hands, back, legs, would be difficult enough to inject in a well lit room with a still and compliant patient, so again, nearly impossible to just randomly stab through clothes and get lucky

I don't think it's common. People have just been made aware of it and suddenly everyone thinks they've been spiked when most have only just drunk their arses off.

It's happened to a few.

I don’t know how common it is now, none of my 4 have had it happen to them (17 - 28).

I had it happen to me though in a nightclub in Portsmouth in c 1988. Nobody knew as much about it then, and I was very lucky I had a sensible caring friend with me.

Trouble is though ive no doubt that it happens, and im just talking about the injecting now not drinks, i think some twats are probably just stabbing girls with a pin just for shits and giggles

What are the voting options, OP? @SeptemberGurl Can't work it out.

I wonder this too. It's awful that it happens at all, but I do think some suspected spikings are just too much alcohol.

When I was at uni (quite a while ago!) I was on a night out with a girl who very rarely drank. She tried to keep up with the 'party girls' in our group, downing god knows how many shots. She ended up feeling very unwell and vomiting a lot, and she insisted her drinks must have been spiked. I always thought that it was more likely she'd just drunk too much!

I have also heard of spiking with alcohol though, e.g. a woman asks her date for a single rum and coke and he gets her a double/triple to get her drunk more quickly.

My middle and eldest DD have been spiked many years ago. All of their friends either have or its been attempted.
Drink spiking is common, it seems to be the same people injecting when it happens across a city.

I have also heard of spiking with alcohol though, e.g. a woman asks her date for a single rum and coke and he gets her a double/triple to get her drunk more quickly.

Back in the olden days when I was a student, received wisdom was that this was the most common form of spiking. Double in place of a single, extra shot of vodka in a different drink, glass topped up when she’s not looking, etc.

It certainly does happen sometimes -- its happen to friends and it can be very distressing. It doesn't need to be an injection either, it can be something like rohypnol which is in liquid form.

But call me cynical but I also suspect that quite a lot of the "spiking" incidents are actually people who've just drunk far too much and are embarrassed about having passed out or having had to be taken to a&e. It's the ultimate get out of jail free card if you've gone way overboard isn't it?