Female students are being injected now with date rape drugs in nightclubs

[GoWalkabout]

I won't post the Facebook post I saw because its on a forum but apparently there have been several reported incidents of students in Exeter nightclubs being injected in the back (not by people they are with) while out. The newspapers really need to get on this story and nightclubs who are reportedly batting back complaints saying that the women are just drunk need to deal with this criminality on their premises. We are not prey.

The timing of these reported incidents can be explained by the start of the university term, which is similar in different parts of the country.

It might be that there is some truth in it (one or more incidents of young women being injected with something in nightclubs) expanded by rumour and conjecture. It doesn't have to be a binary thing.

‘Numbing wipes’ do exist as a thing to calm irritated skin and apparently also as a potential treatment for premature ejaculation.

Still seems a remarkably random way of going about it though.

@MistandMud

‘Numbing wipes’ do exist as a thing to calm irritated skin and apparently also as a potential treatment for premature ejaculation.

Still seems a remarkably random way of going about it though.

Yes, but not with such an anaesthetic effect that you wouldn't feel a needle. You'd need to apply a numbing cream for upwards of 15 minutes!

It's daft anyway. First the victim would have to not notice the wipe, then the perp would have to stalk them for some time whilst it took effect and then somehow they'd have to inject them in that exact same spot. All while it's dark, crowded, and the victim is moving or dancing.

Extremely implausible.

This reminds me both of the perfume myth and the urban legend of the "welcome to the AIDS club" that did the rounds in the late 90s (possibly earlier but I heard it at uni). It was always a friend of a friend it happened to, never someone you knew directly.
If you look up pin prick attacks urban legends around this go back right to the 1930s when "White slavers" were claimed to be injecting young women with morphine to kidnap them and sell them into prostitution.
There's threads on student room of the same MO being discussed dating back to 2010 and then reports in the National Student from 2018 of two students in Birmingham reporting being stabbed with a needle but no drugging effect.

Ms Simpson, 21, said her sister, who is a student from Derby believes she was injected with a mystery liquid and had blood samples taken at the hospital.

From the BBC article, nothing conclusive reported at all, 'believes' she was injected and no report of any results from the blood samples.

@CatBarb

So sorry to tell you that this isn't a myth, it's absolutely frightening! My friends daughter got injected on Saturday night in Nottingham, she was so lucky that she managed to lock herself in the toilet after she realised she couldn't move her arms and legs or shout. She found an injection site in her arm where they have used a numbing wipe (it wiped off her fake tan).. they had even put a ring on her finger saying 'Cry Baby'.. we have pics of this. She is a medical student, very sensible girl, hardly had any drinks and was out with her boyfriend!

Wait.. when did they put the ring on her finger? Is the suggestion she was incapacitated enough for them to do this, but not so incapacitated she couldn't escape to the toilets?

Numbing wipes don't work like that, and how does someone lock a loo door when they can't move their arms.

I really think this is urban myth.

Aside from ketamine, the rape drugs are not injectables. Even ketamine is not usually abused in injectable form. It's hard to come by, requires syringe/needle, and needs to get in to the right part of the body.

Numbing creams take at least 20mins to work, and even then you can still feel it happening a bit.

But even if this story is just the latest myth to scare, it's still useful as it reminds people that the risk from abusers with rape drugs remains very real. Alcohol, especially for those unused to it, is also a hazard

@CatBarb

So sorry to tell you that this isn't a myth, it's absolutely frightening! My friends daughter got injected on Saturday night in Nottingham, she was so lucky that she managed to lock herself in the toilet after she realised she couldn't move her arms and legs or shout. She found an injection site in her arm where they have used a numbing wipe (it wiped off her fake tan).. they had even put a ring on her finger saying 'Cry Baby'.. we have pics of this. She is a medical student, very sensible girl, hardly had any drinks and was out with her boyfriend!

This happened to my friend in Liverpool last week. She actually felt the needle going into her back when she was in a club

The police have arrested someone for allegedly doing this, so presumably must have some evidence...

[[BBC News - Arrest after Nottinghamshire women report being injected with needles
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-58951716]]

Having trouble posting link, you could copy and paste into browser though.

BBC News - Arrest after Nottinghamshire women report being injected with needles
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-58951716

This is true and absolutely horrendous.

My dd is at Nottingham university and they are all aware of it and now scared to go out to the clubs because of this. They were out a few nights ago and had to ring an ambulance for a girl they were with who had been injected and was frothing at the mouth. The ambulance service told them they were so overwhelmed they couldn’t give an estimated time so they took the girl to A and E in an Uber instead.

The girl now has to wait for the results of an HIV test.

Dd hasn’t gone out since. It’s completely ruining her university experience.

@Lockheart

Also, thinking about this scientifically, an intramuscular injection would take longer for the victim to feel the effects, whereas reports on google are saying that victims 'immediately' felt unwell / dizzy. You'd really only get that with an intravenous injection, which is obviously not what is being reported if it is suggested the injections are into the back (plus I doubt even an expert phlebotomist would be able to start sizing up a moving person's veins in a crowded and dark nightclub!). An intramuscular injection would work, but it would take a short while for the effects to take hold.

Unless the media is reporting it incorrectly (which is certainly a possibility), it doesn't really make sense.

I don't see that either intravenous or intramuscular injections could be achieved reliably enough.

For ketamine intramuscularly, you'd be looking at around 5 minutes for it to take effect - and as you'd feel the injection (time taken for numbing cream to work effectively rules out its use) it means you would be able to get help (or at least alert several people round you).

Ketamine will have an effect subcutaneously as well, but it'll take over 15 minutes, by which time it won't just be people around you who know you've just been assaulted, you'll be back with your friends who will be able to watch and seek medical attention.

Wow! I am shocked by these responses.. I couldn't sleep well last night as I was so shocked about what happened to *** this weekend. Her mum doesn't want her name plastered all over the internet, which is understandable.

I've been doing some internet searches this morning to try and find out more about what could have been in the jab, and if there are many more cases. Found this thread and decided I wanted to comment on it so had to sign up to do so. If you want to check me out then you're welcome to view my FB profile, just message me!
I have two daughters myself, aged 7&10 so it's really moved and upset me!
It could be a numbing cream, wipe etc.. I don't know; she obviously didn't see and this is what she has been told at the hospital. She didn't know it was an injection until after and didn't believe you wouldn't feel it but imagine a busy night club on a Saturday night, people are always bumping into people. It happened at Rock City on Sat 16th. They've tested her for HIV and hepatitis and now she's awaiting results.

There is a movement on Instagram called 'girls night in' encouraging girls to boycott the night club industry for one night (think this is specific to Nottingham) to raise awareness. There definitely are other cases.. I will be warning people and trying to prevent this or anything worse happening to any other young students.

I don't know how they put a ring on her finger, must have been in the club when it happened. She went to the toilet and then started to feel funny so this could be 15 mins after it happened. She could barely move her arms and legs but thank goodness managed to lock the toilet door! She was sick in the loo and sat on the floor..
After after 40 mins her friends came to find her and she managed to open the door, her boyfriend picked her up and carried her but the club threw her out saying she was drunk. There was a woman outside shouting at her and calling her a 'cry baby' and trying to take her! Her boyfriend knew it wasn't right and got her in an Uber to hospital..
it all doesn't sound weird, that's why I'm so shocked about it!

It sounds like disinformation but it's a very effective control system. All it would take would be a jab with a drawing pin and the subject of it then has to go through the anxiety of testing for blood borne illnesses (and the people who love them will be anxious for the results).

I've heard of this happening in Edinburgh too. I don't know anyone personally but some of the younger people I work with know people it has happened to and are now too scared to go to clubs and late bars. I don't really get the purpose though. It sounds kind it's fast acting. Do the perpetrators just do it for the laugh as surly no one is going to then be able to drag someone off in full sight in front of their friends and a bar or club full of people and cctv?

It may not have been a numbing wipe, but an alcohol wipe.

@CatBarb

So sorry to tell you that this isn't a myth, it's absolutely frightening! My friends daughter got injected on Saturday night in Nottingham, she was so lucky that she managed to lock herself in the toilet after she realised she couldn't move her arms and legs or shout. She found an injection site in her arm where they have used a numbing wipe (it wiped off her fake tan).. they had even put a ring on her finger saying 'Cry Baby'.. we have pics of this. She is a medical student, very sensible girl, hardly had any drinks and was out with her boyfriend!

Sorry, that's nonsense. Numbing creams take 20 minutes or so to work and, even when they do, they only numb the pain of the needle breaking the skin. They do nothing to numb the pain of the needle passing through the underlying muscle.

Then there is the quantity of the drug they would need to inject. Think about a vaccination - they are typically about half a millilitre of fluid, but you usually feel it going in. A sedating drug, injected intramuscularly, is going to require at least 10 times that amount of fluid (depending on the drug used), to have an effect. Unfortunately, there are no sedating drugs that drop a patient without them even being aware of being injected - life would be much easier for anaesthetists if there were!

And, on top of this, we're supposed to believe that she was out of it enough to have a ring put on her finger against her will, but that she had the strength and presence of mind to lock herself in the loo?

It's certainly possible that this girl had her drink spiked, but the injection story does not stack up.

@Reptar

It may not have been a numbing wipe, but an alcohol wipe.

Yeah, because criminals trying to date-rate teenage girls are all about infection control 🙄

@Reptar

It may not have been a numbing wipe, but an alcohol wipe.

For what purpose? The attack wants to attack with a needle. Why use a wipe?

Its possibly someone acting out a fetish.

@Reptar

Its possibly someone acting out a fetish.

Now that, I find much more believable.

It's not disinformation, someone above shared a link to a BBC article about it, why would someone make up such a thing?!
There are unfortunately some bad people out there so we need to make people aware to prevent it happening to others.
The universities are aware as are the police & hospitals and hopefully they can stop it.

@CatBarb

It's not disinformation, someone above shared a link to a BBC article about it, why would someone make up such a thing?! There are unfortunately some bad people out there so we need to make people aware to prevent it happening to others. The universities are aware as are the police & hospitals and hopefully they can stop it.

Someone has been arrested, following reports of a woman being attacked with a needle. That doesn't mean she was injected with anything, let alone a sedative. Obviously, any assault with a needle is extremely traumatic, but it's by no means proof of people being injected with sedatives.

As for "Why would someone make up such a thing"? Is this your first day on the internet?

It's not disinformation, someone above shared a link to a BBC article about it, why would someone make up such a thing?!

The existence of a link and strongly held beliefs is not sufficient validation. There are several people here with experience of the mechanics of injectables who are questioning the story and mechanism of action.

I don't doubt that there is some pricking going on. I am suggesting that moving from that to 'there is an injectable sedating drug' doing the rounds is something that needs validation because, without it, it is yet another way of controlling the behaviour of women.

The typical route of active disinformation is that it starts floating around in a low level way in the media of other countries for about 6-18 months before it come to prominence in other countries.

It will be interesting to see how this story plays out.