Drink spiking a myth: WA study | The West Australian - "Drink spiking is largely a myth and far more likely to be an excuse young women use after they become heavily intoxicated, according to WA research. A Perth study of suspected drink spiking victims found claims of being given sedatives or illicit drugs without consent are exaggerated and that alcohol is often the real culprit. The results, published in the journal of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, are based on 100 patients who attended Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Joondalup Health Campus over 19 months with suspected drink spiking from the previous 12 hours... "Drink spiking with sedative or illicit drugs appears to be rare and if it does occur alcohol appears to be the most common agent used," he said. Dr Little said what was more concerning was the big number of people in the study who had taken illicit drugs such as cannabis or amphetamines or consumed excessive amounts of alcohol, which made it difficult to establish if a person had truly been given a spiked drink. On average, people in the study had a blood alcohol concentration of .096 and reported having consumed between 3.8 and 11.6 standard drinks. The researchers said they did not identify a single case where a sedative drug was likely to have been placed illegally in a drink in a pub or nightclub. The study also showed that many people remained in denial, with more than a third still believing they had been victims of drink spiking, irrespective of test results which disproved this. Only five out of the 100 patients had blood alcohol levels which did not match with how much they reported drinking, raising the possibility that alcohol had been added to their drinks."
Clearly, we need to listen to victims and ignore the science
People cannot be lying or mistaken about how much alcohol they drank. Someone else must have added alcohol to their drinks
No convictions for drink-spiking in past five years - "There has not been a single conviction for drink-spiking over the past five years, new figures reveal. Police Scotland said they had recorded 74 cases of people's drinks being drugged in the past two-and-half-years. But according to separate statistics from the Scottish government, there have been no convictions."
Drug rape myth exposed as study reveals binge drinking is to blame - "Women who claim to be victims of 'date-rape' drugs such as Rohypnol have in fact been rendered helpless by binge-drinking, says a study by doctors. They found no evidence that any woman seeking help from emergency doctors because their drinks were allegedly spiked had actually been given these drugs. Around one in five tested positive for recreational drugs while two-thirds had been drinking heavily. The findings further erode the theory that there is widespread use of Rohypnol and GHB, another drug said to be favoured by predatory rapists. Last month a personal safety campaigner claimed that Rohypnol had never been used to assist a sexual assault in the UK. Doctors carrying out the latest study at the Wrexham Maelor Hospital said it was far more likely women were claiming their drinks had been spiked as an "excuse" for binge-drinking. The 12-month study was based on 75 patients - mostly women - treated in casualty who told doctors their drinks had been tampered with in pubs or clubs. But tests for drugs such as Rohypnol, GHB and ketamine found nothing, says the study published in the Emergency Medicine Journal. It showed 65 per cent of women had 160mg of alcohol in their blood - twice the 80mg drink/drive limit - and a quarter were three times over the limit. Although all the patients denied taking drugs such as cocaine and amphetamine, one fifth tested positive... "Claiming their drink has been spiked may be used as an excuse by patients who have become incapacitated after the voluntary consumption of excess alcohol." Dr Hughes said some women might have felt ashamed at ending up in casualty. "There seems to be greater awareness about the dangers of binge-drinking, which is where the emphasis should stay," he added. Last month Julie Bentley, chief executive of the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, said many women fall victim to sexual assaults after being plied with alcohol. Commenting on claims that Rohypnol had played a part in sex attacks, she said: "As far as I am aware, there has never been a case of Rohypnol in this country found.""
What's being used to spike your drink? Alleged spiked drink cases in inner city London - "Prospective case series determining the presence and quantity of sedative and illicit drugs, and ethanol in biological samples (blood and urine) obtained from consenting patients >18 years of age presenting to a large inner city London emergency department alleging they had consumed a spiked drink within the previous 12 h... Illicit drugs were detected in 12 (15%) participants; 7 denied intentional exposure (3 methylenedioxymethamphetamine, 3 cannabis, 1 γ‐hydroxybutyrate). Medicinal drugs were detected in 13 participants; only 1 exposure was unexplained (benzodiazepine). Overall illicit or medicinal drugs of unexplained origin were detected in 8 (10%) participants. Unexplained sedative drug exposure was detected in only 2 (3%) participants.
Use of sedative drugs to spike drinks may not be as common as reported in the mainstream media. A large number of study participants had serum ethanol concentrations associated with significant intoxication; the source (personal over‐consumption or deliberate drink spiking) is unclear."
Given that there was consent, this means that in the total population of spiking claims, even fewer people would truly have been spiked (since those who were pretending to be spiked would be less likely to consent)
A global epidemiological perspective on the toxicology of drug-facilitated sexual assault: A systematic review - "A systematic review was undertaken to determine the current global prevalence of drug-facilitated sexual assault (DFSA) reported in adults in order to identify trends in the toxicology findings in DFSA around the world over the past 20 years... This comprehensive review suggests that alcohol intoxication combined with voluntary drug consumption presents the greatest risk factor for DFSA, despite populist perceptions that covert drink-spiking is a common occurrence. There is a need to develop policies that encourage early responders to suspected DFSA (e.g., law enforcement agencies, medical staff, support agencies, etc), to collect detailed information about the individual's licit and illicit drug consumption history, in order to assist in providing appropriate and more thorough contextual information."
Damn victim blaming! Believe victims!
Date-rape drink spiking 'an urban legend' - "Dr Adam Burgess from the university's School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, said: "Young women appear to be displacing their anxieties about the consequences of consuming what is in the bottle on to rumours of what could be put there by someone else. "The reason why fear of drink-spiking has become widespread seems to be a mix of it being more convenient to guard against than the effects of alcohol itself and the fact that such stories are exotic – like a more adult version of 'stranger danger'."... Among young people, drink spiking stories have attractive features that could "help explain" their disproportionate loss of control after drinking alcohol, the study found. Dr Burgess said: "Our findings suggest guarding against drink spiking has also become a way for women to negotiate how to watch out for each other in an environment where they might well lose control from alcohol consumption."... "As Dr Burgess observes, it is not scientific evidence which keeps the drug rape myth alive but the fact that it serves so many useful functions.""
"We suggest that the drink-spiking narrative has a functional appeal in relation to the contemporary experience of young women’s public drinking"
A Useful Side-Effect of Misplaced Fear - "Basically, the hypothesis is that perpetuating the fear of drug-rape allows parents and friends to warn young women off excessive drinking without criticizing their personal choices. The fake bogeyman lets people avoid talking about the real issues."
There is no spiking epidemic - "jabbing someone with a needle is not easy. One academic I spoke to said that “incapacitating someone with a needle is something the NKVD [the Russian secret police] would have to do”. It hurts, for a start; and getting it into the bloodstream via the leg or back is “really inefficient”. The dosing would be amazingly hard to get right, as would doing it without someone noticing for the several seconds it takes to press the plunger on the syringe. The idea that it’s widespread is incredibly unlikely... you can record the number of people who think they’ve been spiked — about 5% of victims of rape and sexual assault think they were drugged, as Sumnall points out. But we know from every other area of psychological science that self-reported data is really unreliable. Ivan Ezquerra-Romano, co-founder and director of the social enterprise Drugs And Me, is also doing a PhD in cognitive psychology, and he says “self-report is something that we as psychologists try to run away from”... “In the majority of cases that get investigated, the substances are impossible to detect,” says Giulia Zampini, a senior lecturer in criminology at the University of Greenwich... The focus on one particular archetype of “spiking” — the stranger slipping a clear liquid into a woman’s drink in a club, as in the BBC drama I May Destroy You — distracts from a more complex social problem... in most cases of drug-facilitated sexual assault, the drug is alcohol."
Stop this moral panic over injection spiking - "This is what a moral panic looks like. A few alleged incidents of injection spiking have become the prompt for widespread fear-mongering about women’s safety in nightclubs. The only article raising sensible questions about the likelihood of date-rape drugs being administered via injections appeared in Vice. In the piece, Guy Jones, a senior scientist at drugs charity the Loop, explains that ‘few drugs would be able to be injected like this [using a needle]’. David Caldicott, founder of drugs-testing project WEDINOS, says that ‘the technical and medical knowledge required to perform [injection spiking] would make this deeply improbable. It is at the level of a state-sponsored actor incapacitating a dissident, like the Novichok incident.’ And Adam Winstock, director of the Global Drug Survey, explains that ‘there are very few easily accessible drugs / medicines that could be given intramuscular[ly] in a small enough volume that people would not notice… What you see in the movies is not reality.’ But despite the lack of evidence and the doubts about the feasibility of injection spiking many are now demanding even greater nightclub security. Such a change is no small matter. Panic-induced security measures are already throttling clubs and bars. They can barely afford to keep up with changing regulations as it is. More importantly, the flippant suggestion that everyone should be okay with body searches on a night out says something worrying about our dwindling appreciation for freedom and autonomy. Some have even suggested that women start wearing denim when clubbing, so as to literally add an extra layer of safety on the dancefloor. It seems the defiant spirit of the feminist Take Back the Night marches is dead. In its place is a new narrative that urges women to give in to fear. For example, students at the University of Bristol have now launched a campaign called Girls Night In, which urges women to stay indoors until there is a ‘change to the way clubs are run’. Will these women only feel safe at a club night that begins with a full body search and a health-and-safety demonstration?"
From 2021
Three women who reported needle attack had no drugs in their systems - "Three women who claimed they were spiked with a needle had no drugs in their systems, police have revealed in a bid to give “peace of mind” to clubbers."
Syringe attacks puzzle European authorities — Analysis - "This disturbing phenomenon was started in France and has now spread to Spain. People who attended the Festival of San Fermin (Pamplona), Spain reported getting stuck with syringes while they were incrowded places. Little is known about the substances they’ve been injected with, but one curious detail in victim testimony may link the attacks with a spate of similar syringe assaults in France. While Pamplona was packed with people to see the daredevils race against the bulls, there was a greater threat lurking. Four young people – three females and a male – told police that they felt a pinching sensation before being overcome with dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and cold sweats. All four were taken to the hospital by their friends, El Mundo reported on Tuesday. They were all reunited with their friends and none were subject to sexual abuse. No toxic substances were discovered in the samples taken from victims... The UK authorities also noticed an increase in the number of syringe-related attacks last October. However, scattered cases were reported in Belgium as well as the Netherlands."
From 2022
We risk terrifying a generation of women if we go into a moral panic over ‘needle spiking’ in clubs without looking at the facts - "Despite these contradictions and indeed the lack of evidence, beyond the claims being made, institutions, like universities, have sent out scare messages to students. Within days of the case in Dundee going viral, and with no evidence or proof of what had actually happened, Dundee University sent an email to all their students warning of the ‘extremely distressing events’ that were ‘unacceptable, reprehensible and ultimately life threatening.’ Part of the explanation for this panic reaction is the pre-existing belief that drink spiking is a widespread problem for young women across the UK. However, this too has been questioned by experts and by criminological research... Much of the discussion about drink spiking occurs online. This was how the recent Dundee needle-spike incident went viral. The pub in which the incident was meant to have occurred initially raised some doubts about the case and called the young woman an ‘alleged victim’ rather than simply a victim. The subsequent pile-on in social media for not calling the woman a victim quickly forced the pub to change their tune, apologise, and to insist that they will be increasing their security from then on. That a local pub that feels under siege reacts in this way is understandable; that much of the press, politicians and institutions like universities have adopted this language of fear is, however, inexcusable. Without actual evidence of the ‘ultimately life threatening’ cases in question, or a genuine understanding of the scale of the problem, those in positions of authority would do well to act with a little thought and maturity. If they do not, we risk unnecessarily terrorising a generation of young women and demonising the same generation of young men who may soon face a new stop-and-search regime when they go for a night out."
Experts claim 'nightclub needle attacks' are 'highly improbable' - "terrifying reports have emerged of an ‘epidemic’ of young women being stabbed with syringes in bars and nightclubs. Several of the accounts include stories of blacking out, being unable to speak and waking up to find a puncture wound on an arm, leg or lower back. Images released by the women show pinprick-like marks... leading drug experts and toxicologists have said it is ‘highly improbable’ for someone to be able to drug someone using a syringe because of the technical knowledge required. They said it was far more likely the women have had their drinks spiked and then injured themselves while under this influence. Professor Atholl Johnston, President of the Clinical Contract Research Association and pharmacologist and toxicologist at St George’s University London, said: ‘I know of no drug that could be randomly injected into a person that would work instantly.’ John Slaughter, senior forensic toxicologist at ASI Bioanalytics, said it was unlikely that a needle would be in the skin for ‘long enough to have such a pharmacological effect’... In Nottingham alone there have been 15 reports of needle spikings this month and police said they have arrested three men as part of a ‘wider investigation’ into drink spiking. The force said it had identified only one case where a victim’s injury ‘could be consistent with a needle’... David Caldicott, a medicine consultant and founder of drug testing project Wedinos, told Vice News: ‘The technical and medical knowledge required to perform this would make this deeply improbable. ‘It is at the level of a state-sponsored actor incapacitating a dissident, like the novichok incident.’ He then added: ‘If you were malicious there would be half a dozen much easier ways to spike someone.’"
