scary warning story about spiking on campus

[SnowballSevenoaks]

my student son has told me a story I should like to pass on so that you can warn your DCs who have recently started at university. Last week, after midnight, my son came across another boy lying semi-comatose on a pathway, apparently under the influence of drugs. My son and two bouncers from a nearby bar asked him what he'd taken. He wasn't at all with it but responded several times that he hadn't taken anything, so they suspected spiking. They managed to track down friends of the boy via his phone and when they turned up they said that they'd all been out to celebrate the boy's 19th birthday and no one noticed that he was missing. So please warn your DCs about spiking and staying with friends who are going to look out for them!

What a rotten thing to happen for your birthday. Glad that people were looking out for him.

On the basis of other threads relatively recently, I was horrified to learn that it's apparently not unusual to spike a group who are out together - instead of going only for the intended target, it's more effective to pick off those who may be aware and able to support them if safety in numbers could mitigate the spiking (or in a staggered timeframe, often with lads first who feel more ashamed at getting "drunk" too quickly). It makes twisted sense. Please pass this on too. Resources and training at stampoutspiking.org/

Asked my DD; spiking is everywhere, both boys and girls. It's already happened three times this academic year to friends she's been out with.

So is getting absolutely shitfaced. I recently had to help someone that had been 'spiked' and from talking to the paramedic they were also of the persuasion that lots used spiking as a get out of jail free car.

Well yes, because concentrated alcohol is one of the usual spiking agents that isn't going to be detected. If something else is used then it's not easy to be sure without urine or blood tests and these would be ineffective after about 7 hours even if you were in a position to get one.

People on projects that help those spiked and not spiked have said anecdotally that it is more likely to see a spiking result in a fast and sudden descent to incapacitated, complete confusion and lack of control (not taking in anything people are saying, babbling), wide eyes like a drug reaction, wetting yourself, and a long period of complete blank after feeling the effects start up. Yes, these can be alcohol related, but you'd have to stretch a point to say that spiking is self-inflicted. It's poisoning in fact.