To expect to be tested after having my drink spiked

[isaidwhatisaid]

Last night I had my drink spiked. I am 100% sure that is what happened. I was in the pub. I had a couple of glasses of Rosè and started feeling like I had 10 tequilas so I went to the toilets where I uncontrollably slouched down on the cubicle floor, went limp and just resigned myself to waiting for my friends to come and find me. At that point I was sure I had been drugged as the effect was getting worse and was a very different feeling from being too drunk (which I wouldn’t have been from a couple of glasses of wine anyway).

Long story short, an ambulance came, I was taken to A&E and after waiting for a few hours was told that they wouldn’t carry out any toxicology tests because that’s up to the police to do. I reported it to the police today at the local station and they told me they don’t have the resources to do drug tests and that A&E should have done it. They have logged the crime and will review the pub’s cctv evidence but it’s unlikely that any drug will be picked up in my system now, even if I manage to get a blood and urine test tomorrow. I also spoke with a paramedic today via 111 referral who informed me that I should make a complaint about A&E and I spoke to my GP who said that I should make a complaint about the police.

Has anyone else been in this situation and know who is responsible for testing? I have been trying to find an answer all day and the closet I could find was an FOI release by the Met Police that states that they should use a Forensic Medical Examiner to carry out tests. I’ll get back onto the police tomorrow but I just feel like I’m not getting anywhere and I want to do everything I can to stop this person from doing it to anyone else.

I worked in ED for years and we never ran toxicology for drugs. Might do basic bloods including an alcohol level (which 9/10 was very high despite them stating they only had 1 drink).

A mate of mine got spiked on a night out, we’d only had a few drinks and out of nowhere she was like you were.

Similar happened, we went to A&E and they kept an eye on her but did no tests or anything.

After a few hours in hospital she felt a bit better and just wanted to go home so we did, she just left it’s that.

I know it’s not ideal but at least you’re ok now and your friends looked after you, I’d just leave it as that and move on.

@Stressfordays so do you think many people who think they have been spiked have just had too much to drink? Seperate topic really but I keep hearing that coming up time and time again and like I said, the feeling of being drugged and being drunk is very different so I think it’s somewhat irrelevant how high their blood alcohol is.

How will testing help you?

I don’t know how much testing costs, but I think it should be done whenever someone suspects it.
How can we tackle things like date rape when we don’t even know how often it’s happening.
It should be tested as standard in these situations imo

I think a lot of people state they have been spiked when they have in fact drunk more then they think, yes. Not all of them, drink spiking does happen but not as often as people claim.

Because then you have a proven explanation for what happened to you and can look into finding out who did it via CCTV etc?

OP, I'm sorry about what happened to you, that sounds so scary and disconcerting.

@Changingplace I’m incredibly lucky that I can easily move on as I wasn’t assaulted but I want to do what I can to help catch this person and get them prosecuted to stop them doing this to anyone else and stop them potentially assaulting someone else, which is something that a victim won’t be able to just move on from.

But how do we know it’s not as often as we think, when it’s not tested for?
Chances are, someone has been drinking, but saying they’ve got more in alcohol in their blood than they thought isn’t proof they weren’t drugged, is it?

I had my drink spiked in 2003 as a student and was taken to A&E. I also asked if they'd be testing for rohypnol or whatever it was I'd been spiked with, and they said no they generally didn't do that unless the patient was extremely unwell.

I'm not saying they shouldn't test, but they don't. You can't even request drugs tests in ED. And when people are claiming they only had 1 drink and have a blood alcohol level of .30% you start to question it. I know I've been very drunk, very quickly before, usually due to lack of eating and a couple of shots.

I'm not saying its right, but dealing with drunks so often makes you quite impatient and often disbelieving of people. I left ED when I hit that point because that's not the type of person I am, the environment made me that way.

Sorry to hear this op. Our local hospital has a kit in conjunction with local safe buses etc so it is taken seriously in some places:

'The high-profile campaign saw the NNUH lab team join forces with the Police, the SOS wellbeing bus, and selected clubs and bars to offer anti-spiking kits, so anyone who thinks they, or a friend, has been spiked, can ask at the bar for a kit to provide a urine sample, which is submitted to the NNUH lab for testing.'

Now running as a full campaign:
antispiking.org

The exact same thing happened to me once years ago. On a night out with friends. Suddenly and unexpectedly unconscious. I knew something was wrong, so did my friends so they took me to the hospital. The doctor/nurse (I’m not sure) spoke to me like drunken idiotic child and sent me home refusing to do blood tests even though I was scared of what had happened and what I had been given. Later that night my friends boyfriends friend admitted having spiked me to his friend! There wasn’t much I could do at that stage but my I can’t help but wonder if the next woman he did that too might not be so lucky.

I can appreciate that a lot of people think they have been spiked when they are just drunk but that is not always the case. We will never stop think of we disregard potential spiking victims experiences like this.

I never got tested either. I went to a local bar and after two drinks, felt so unwell I stumbled home and collapsed trying to put my keys in the door. I couldn’t use my legs. A neighbour called an ambulance but no testing in hospital. Months later I read that the bar owner was facing a charge of rape and the young woman claimed to have been spiked and helped by him to a store cupboard sofa to sleep it off. The charges were later dropped, not enough evidence and all they got was a fine for not having working CCTV. So surely if I’d been tested it would have helped with evidence.

PS it had to be the bar owner, no one else came near my drinks. I was on my own, it was the kind of place you nipped into on the way home for a couple of glasses of wine and a cosy corner to read!

@Brandyb thank you. I’m very lucky I had friends who came looking for me shortly after I became incapacitated.

I’m not going to get into a back of forth with any fonts who might be victim blaming because that’s not good for me mentally right now. I just posted to get advice about the testing and to also spread awareness. This happened in a pub at about 7pm while I was with a small group of colleagues after a work away day. The drink that was spiked was a round ordered by one of my colleagues. They left the wines on the bar while they brought the beers back over to the table first.

testing in a and e wouldn’t meet the requirements for chain of evidence need for a prosecution as medical staff are not trained in this/legally trained and the samples are just sent to the hospital lab so theoretically loads of people could have tampered with the samples. It’s the same reason why examinations after sexual assault need to be done in specialist centres where the samples are processed securely, otherwise it would all just be rejected in a court of law

This is shocking that a hospital can’t be trusted to check for drugs with a simple blood/urine test.
Just a really sorry state of affairs

I think it is simply the resources are not there to investigate and follow through with this as a crime unless you are subsequently seriously ill, injured or assulted.

We were also told to refuse to take bloods for the police in driving under the influence cases. It had to be their nurses and when we were done with the patient. I never understood why when I was already drawing blood.

I'm afraid that spiking happens all to often. So I believe you. But I'm also sorry to say that they're is no satisfaction for you to have here. People do drink too much. They also mix alcohol and drugs.

Realistically, there is almost no possibility that any CCTV will have picked up anything, and even if it did, that isn't evidence of it not being done with your agreement. And then, if you get past all those requirements, which would take hours and hours and hours of investigative time, they will have a possibly decent photo of a stranger without any identity. Or a poor grainy photo of a total stranger.

Multiply that by every reported spiking, whether true or not. There simply isn't the resource to do this. I wish there was, but there isn't. In our city centre alone, I can tell you for a fact how many reports of spiking there were last weekend. Just the reported ones. 51 on Friday, 123 on Saturday and 26 on Sunday. And we know that because we are working on raising awareness, supporting people, and working with premises and people to identify the risks and tackle them. We are actively trying to reduce the opportunity to spike and the responses to the issue.

It's hard work, we're making some differences, but it isn't enough. It never will be. I'm afraid that the only good answer is to be vigilant and look after your friends. It shouldn't be up to potential victims to protect themselves. But in the end, no matter what we do, it's them that a big part of the answer.

That won't be what you want to hear. But it's the truth.

Thank you. I completely respect the work that the medical staff do. Even the paramedics admitted to me that when they first got the call they rolled their eyes and just thought ‘another drunk person.’ It was only when they saw me that they said my symptoms are consistent with opiate spiking.

Sounds like it is the police that should be testing then.

Far out. I'm sorry that happened to you. Great that you've got friends who were there for you.
I have no solutions for you but I would have thought with all the testing that goes on for other things a quick blood test would be sufficient.
I suppose it comes down to a cost and resources issue for either the police or the hospital.
Glad you're feeling better today xx

Absolutely. I have learned from this and there’s things that are within my control and things that aren’t. It’s definitely not useful to be naive to that.

51 on Friday, 123 on Saturday and 26 on Sunday.

But if 31, 100 and 20 of those reported had been drinking in the Red Lion then police resources could be focused on the oh... I don't know, maybe the Red Lion? Its ridiculous to say nothing can be done as you only have a grainy cctv image. Thats lazy policing.

I'm sorry this happened to you OP and hope you find an answer ❤