Spiking: What You Need to Know

The Govt has announced on 24th November 2024 its intention to introduce new legislation to protect women and girls from spiking.

This will include training thousands of staff working in the night-time economy on how to spot and tackle spiking. Piloted from December, the training will help equip staff with the skills they need to prevent incidents, support victims and help police collect evidence. This will be rolled out to up to 10,000 bar staff across the country by spring next year.

In a YouGov poll in December 2022, 10% of women and 5% of men said they had been spiked.

Anybody can be a victim of spiking. But people in some groups are more likely to be victims.

The police received 6,732 reports of spiking in the year ending April 2023, 957 relating to needle spiking. According to data from the National Police Chiefs’ Council published in December 2022, based on people who have reported that they have been a victim of spiking: 

• the average age of victims across all types of spiking was 26 years
• women were the victims in a large majority of all spiking offences (74%)

Preventative measures

Everyone has a responsibility in preventing spiking from individuals through to friends and night-time economy providers. Advice is don’t leave drinks unattended, don’t accept drinks from strangers’ and people you don’t know. Consider drinking from bottles and don’t share drinks from someone.

Security and night-time staff from bar tenders through to security should be aware to those entering venues with drugs and needles, vulnerable persons who appear drunk maybe possibly spiked. Signage about leaving drinks unattended, monitoring unattended drinks and advising patrons not to leave drinks unattended. Observing suspicious persons around unattended drinks.

Symptoms of spiking

You might feel strange or feel that your drink has had more of an effect on you than it should have, get help immediately. You may feel nausea, suffer from vomiting and nausea, hallucinations and paranoia, disorientation or poor coordination, loss of ability to communicate properly, memory loss, lowered inhibitions.

Responding to allegations

Take the person to the identified safety area within the venue, stay with them and keep them talking. Seek medical attention and call the Police, don’t let them consume more alcohol and Identify friends of the spiking victim or attempt to contact family and friends. Don’t let the victim leave with strangers.

Forensic opportunities - Think evidence!

Some drugs leave the body within 12 hours or much sooner. It is important to report to the police as soon as possible, a sample that could be used for testing. But many other drugs remain in the body longer, they might be able to test you up to seven days after the incident. Testing is the most effective way of finding out whether someone has spiked you. It can detect over a hundred different types of drugs. Drinking vessels or disposed of needles, retain without contaminating the objects i.e., by touching without gloves. Identify suspects and if possible, detain them until arrival of Police. Identify witnesses and retain CCTV. Complete an incident report.

If unsure what to do SA can provide specialist training in awareness, response and forensic preservation.