Odd this, A&E can’t help you the day after (they’re treating emergencies not for blood tests) 111 were useless, but opted not to contact the police?
Depending on what she was spiked with it might not have even been in her system at the time. In neither case was sexual assault detected.
OshaBreaker on
Not to sound harsh here but I’m always somewhat wary of ‘spiking’ stories when people are out with large groups of friends at clubs/bars.
Anyone who’s been at uni within the last decade will know that it’s semi-routinely used as an excuse by people who just get far too drunk and don’t want to face the consequences (I had one housemate admit as much to me a few weeks after the fact).
Look at how quickly the needle spiking myth suddenly generated hundreds of supposed reports despite clearly being impossible in a club environment.
With all the other pressures on them, I can see why the emergency services are reluctant to take it as seriously.
In one to one ‘date environments’ it’s obviously a different scenario, and you can see why that does need to be taken very seriously.
mronion82 on
This is going to sound uncharitable but a lot of young people don’t know how to drink alcohol very well. They get to 18 and really go for it, get pissed more quickly than they anticipated and fail to account for medication they’re taking or whether they’ve eaten etc.
I’m sure there are genuine cases but I’ve been around a few ‘spiking’ incidents that have turned out to be down to inexperience with alcohol rather than drugs slipped into drinks.
Salty_Nutbag on
> waking up in a cupboard.
This has happened to me, too.
Got told I had to go into work the next day as well.
On my day off.
I wasn’t even supposed to be there.
WantsToDieBadly on
‘According to the Metropolitan Police, symptoms of spiking include:
* Confusion
* Nausea or vomiting
* Hallucinations and paranoia
* Disorientation or poor coordination
* Loss of ability to communicate properly
* Memory loss
* Feeling sick or throwing up
* Lowered inhibitions
* Loss of balance
* Unconsciousness
* Problems with vision’
These symptoms are all universal with having too much to drink, it feels like each year after freshers week when a host of inexperienced drinkers take to the bars all these headlines come out. It also doesnt specify the drinks that one person had with the meal, 3 WKDs wont do much but 3 double vodkas with no time to digest the food sure will.
I mean. i get why A&E dont do the tests, its say 12 hours after the incident, and then more hours waiting for a nurse.
The pre drinking culture at uni’s is still widespread too, down a couple shots of jaegers before the club, or a few glasses of cheap cider to get you buzzed and one too many vodkas and coca cola is too much . of course the pre drinks dont count, ‘we only had 3 drinks at the club’ ignoring anything had at the dorms 2 hours ago
Reverend_Vader on
Not sure what they want the emergency services to do here
Investigate it ….. hahaha, dream on, they don’t have the resources to hunt this white whale
A&E will deal with you if you’re fucked up from it, they stick you under obs until it runs through your system
For the majority of people that are spiked (been there quite a few times) you either come round from it not having a scoobie what happened, or go home and grind it out (beat getting spiked with 3 tabs worth of lsd at a funeral wake!)
The first implies she wanted just to be tested to confirm, fair enough but A&E isn’t for that, no doubt you have to go through 111
We had a staffer pricked with a dirty needle out on site last week, they rushed to a&e to be sent off and told its 6 weeks for the tests, you are not getting a drug/tox test via a&e normally
The 2nd woman, that simply sounds like many calls I made to my manager in my 20’s, when I decided to go on the lash instead of working
Neither implied any form of assault or theft or I’d have a different opinion
SaltSatisfaction2124 on
Believe me or don’t
When a needle spiking story hit the news a few years back there was probably between 5 -10 further reports every weekend following it and a few in the middle of the week
None of them turned out to be needle stick.
This was following assessments up at A&E, urine samples
People wildly over estimate these things, when the reality is, you drank too much, or took too much of whatever it is you were taking.
Everyone claimed their situation was different, they knew how alcohol affected them, they felt the sharp pain, the sudden loss of control, a sense of cold coming over them, they didn’t …
Had to have been at least 100+ reports none of which had anything backing them up
Whilst people’s drinks being spiked does happen, it is so rare, and people obsessively want to blame something other than themselves
MrNezzy on
I know a friend who has done multiple tests with people who have stated they’ve been “spiked” male and female victims and every time there’s been no trace of any form of date rape drug however there has been traces of cocaine or cannabis.
There is no doubt people do get spiked, however not to the amount that is reported, most people just don’t want to embarrass themselves in front of their friends or family.
ThreeFerns on
Most people who think they have been spiked were not in fact spiked, according to actual testing :
why are there like 10 different 30-day-old accounts in here arguing that spiking basically isn’t a thing? is this a new culture war front?
Tommy_MLXVi on
As a paramedic in a busy city for the past 15 years I have been to many young men and women who are concerned they or a friend have been ‘spiked’.
I would always take their concerns seriously however after taking a history of their situation I would frequently be able to attribute their symptoms to just alcohol intoxication and I could provide some education on the effects of alcohol on an empty stomach, speed of intake etc.
However there have been some that have definitely raised my suspicions and I would always advocate for them when we get to A&E and advocate reporting it to the police.
_Chemist1 on
I was part of a private space where access was restricted and women would drink to the point of not being able to walk with friends who would keep getting them drinks.
Then claimed to be spiked. The place had cameras and we’d watch hours of cameras
Never once did we see anything but we saw inexperienced drinkers women going one for one with 200lb male friends.
The I should be able to get completely legless meant often there friends would abandoned them leaving them to sober up.
Spiking happens but without proof I’m doubtful
ToastyBuns4Life on
I do sympathise with her, but it says in the article that she opted to not report it to the police, then in the second paragraph after she calls for more people to report it or it’ll be swept under the rug!
rabbidasseater on
I had an ex girlfriend convinced she was spiked. Didn’t take into account she was a heavy drinking type 1 diabetic who would drink alco pops with double vodkas on an empty stomach. But because she only had 4 drinks and couldn’t stand someone spiked her.
lupussucksbutiwin on
Everybody is being let down by the emergency services atm. If someone comes in post symptoms and reports what happens, then it’s not an emergency. I can understand them not helping as it’s not considered an emergency at that point. If someone is bought in symptomatic then that’s different. But emergency departments are dying on their feet, and are for emergency cases that are currently a threat.
It’s grim that there aren’t any ways together these tests, but that’s where the focus should be for the fight, not blaming emergency services for not acting in a non-emergent situation, when they have trouble enough doing just that.
altkotch on
For everyone commenting about drug tests not showing signs of spiking, it’s entirely meaningless as it’s very difficult to test for or they just don’t test for most of the things someone would use (g / rc benzos / muscle relaxants etc). I wouldnt but I honestly believe I could come up with a list of 100 ways to spike someone without it being detected but even the most common ways wont be either (maybe common street drugs and some pharma benzos would be but none of these are ideal or are very hard to get hold of).
I think people want to pretend this isnt an issue because it’s a horrible truth but it happens and rarther than ignore victims and empower abusers. It reminds me of sweeping pedophiles under the rug in the 70s.
I’ve been spiked once where me and my parter ended up sharing the last drink of the night and she ended up unconscious in hospital and I was severely inebriated with a feeling that was 100% a benzo and alcohol combo, which I know because I’ve done that a lot for fun and its a familiar feeling. We had both been drinking and it could be easily written off as being drunk by some of the commenters here but why did I have that reaction with the exact familiar feeling, drinking the same amount as I normally do and have 2 men testing me as I left. Thank god I still had my south london aggression.
Another time I’m 99% a man attemped to but in a very obvious way so we just left the situation. His friend even told us not to drink it but downed it himself (probably didn’t mind a bit of g lol).
BlackSpinedPlinketto on
I don’t know how real ‘spiking’ is, I’ve only met one girl in real life who thinks they were spiked, ie, their drink had some drug in it. I kind of thought she was just drunk to be honest, as I didn’t see anyone who was lurking around to take advantage. So why would they do it? Weird.
One time I was at a gay bar and some guy gave me lots of drinks, but one of them made me feel instantly sick. He walked me outside to a taxi cab and before that forced me into an ally and did stuff to me, I was 14. I always wondered if that was what spiking was. I did remember what happened though, so maybe not.
I remembered it, but I couldn’t explain to the paramedic what happened, so I just went home.
No one believed me, so I didn’t believe that girl at uni. Everyone else did and she got a lot of symp, she wasn’t even raped or anything.
Gr3mlins on
The key thing missed in all this is having a drink spiked is not an emergency, you don’t need to go to A&E. It’s a waste of resources to do a drug test to see what drug, if any, is in someone’s system.
If you are concerned about being spiked it’s a police issue, they can do testing.
Much_Performance352 on
This is poorly researched and shits on the NHS as usual. If it’s a crime, call the police – They have doctors and nurses for forensic tests.
Going to A+E and pissing in a tox pot which isn’t even admissible as evidence is not helpful to anyone – and if well enough to show up of your own accord, rarely needs any further medical attention.
19 Comments
Odd this, A&E can’t help you the day after (they’re treating emergencies not for blood tests) 111 were useless, but opted not to contact the police?
Depending on what she was spiked with it might not have even been in her system at the time. In neither case was sexual assault detected.
Not to sound harsh here but I’m always somewhat wary of ‘spiking’ stories when people are out with large groups of friends at clubs/bars.
Anyone who’s been at uni within the last decade will know that it’s semi-routinely used as an excuse by people who just get far too drunk and don’t want to face the consequences (I had one housemate admit as much to me a few weeks after the fact).
Look at how quickly the needle spiking myth suddenly generated hundreds of supposed reports despite clearly being impossible in a club environment.
With all the other pressures on them, I can see why the emergency services are reluctant to take it as seriously.
In one to one ‘date environments’ it’s obviously a different scenario, and you can see why that does need to be taken very seriously.
This is going to sound uncharitable but a lot of young people don’t know how to drink alcohol very well. They get to 18 and really go for it, get pissed more quickly than they anticipated and fail to account for medication they’re taking or whether they’ve eaten etc.
I’m sure there are genuine cases but I’ve been around a few ‘spiking’ incidents that have turned out to be down to inexperience with alcohol rather than drugs slipped into drinks.
> waking up in a cupboard.
This has happened to me, too.
Got told I had to go into work the next day as well.
On my day off.
I wasn’t even supposed to be there.
‘According to the Metropolitan Police, symptoms of spiking include:
* Confusion
* Nausea or vomiting
* Hallucinations and paranoia
* Disorientation or poor coordination
* Loss of ability to communicate properly
* Memory loss
* Feeling sick or throwing up
* Lowered inhibitions
* Loss of balance
* Unconsciousness
* Problems with vision’
These symptoms are all universal with having too much to drink, it feels like each year after freshers week when a host of inexperienced drinkers take to the bars all these headlines come out. It also doesnt specify the drinks that one person had with the meal, 3 WKDs wont do much but 3 double vodkas with no time to digest the food sure will.
I mean. i get why A&E dont do the tests, its say 12 hours after the incident, and then more hours waiting for a nurse.
The pre drinking culture at uni’s is still widespread too, down a couple shots of jaegers before the club, or a few glasses of cheap cider to get you buzzed and one too many vodkas and coca cola is too much . of course the pre drinks dont count, ‘we only had 3 drinks at the club’ ignoring anything had at the dorms 2 hours ago
Not sure what they want the emergency services to do here
Investigate it ….. hahaha, dream on, they don’t have the resources to hunt this white whale
A&E will deal with you if you’re fucked up from it, they stick you under obs until it runs through your system
For the majority of people that are spiked (been there quite a few times) you either come round from it not having a scoobie what happened, or go home and grind it out (beat getting spiked with 3 tabs worth of lsd at a funeral wake!)
The first implies she wanted just to be tested to confirm, fair enough but A&E isn’t for that, no doubt you have to go through 111
We had a staffer pricked with a dirty needle out on site last week, they rushed to a&e to be sent off and told its 6 weeks for the tests, you are not getting a drug/tox test via a&e normally
The 2nd woman, that simply sounds like many calls I made to my manager in my 20’s, when I decided to go on the lash instead of working
Neither implied any form of assault or theft or I’d have a different opinion
Believe me or don’t
When a needle spiking story hit the news a few years back there was probably between 5 -10 further reports every weekend following it and a few in the middle of the week
None of them turned out to be needle stick.
This was following assessments up at A&E, urine samples
People wildly over estimate these things, when the reality is, you drank too much, or took too much of whatever it is you were taking.
Everyone claimed their situation was different, they knew how alcohol affected them, they felt the sharp pain, the sudden loss of control, a sense of cold coming over them, they didn’t …
Had to have been at least 100+ reports none of which had anything backing them up
Whilst people’s drinks being spiked does happen, it is so rare, and people obsessively want to blame something other than themselves
I know a friend who has done multiple tests with people who have stated they’ve been “spiked” male and female victims and every time there’s been no trace of any form of date rape drug however there has been traces of cocaine or cannabis.
There is no doubt people do get spiked, however not to the amount that is reported, most people just don’t want to embarrass themselves in front of their friends or family.
Most people who think they have been spiked were not in fact spiked, according to actual testing :
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.scgh.health.wa.gov.au/~/media/HSPs/NMHS/Hospitals/SCGH/Documents/Services/Poisons/Drink-Spiking.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwixkv2sx_mIAxUDVEEAHQxiAcEQFnoECDsQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1QneJ9bqHdk5yxUeznSYy1
why are there like 10 different 30-day-old accounts in here arguing that spiking basically isn’t a thing? is this a new culture war front?
As a paramedic in a busy city for the past 15 years I have been to many young men and women who are concerned they or a friend have been ‘spiked’.
I would always take their concerns seriously however after taking a history of their situation I would frequently be able to attribute their symptoms to just alcohol intoxication and I could provide some education on the effects of alcohol on an empty stomach, speed of intake etc.
However there have been some that have definitely raised my suspicions and I would always advocate for them when we get to A&E and advocate reporting it to the police.
I was part of a private space where access was restricted and women would drink to the point of not being able to walk with friends who would keep getting them drinks.
Then claimed to be spiked. The place had cameras and we’d watch hours of cameras
Never once did we see anything but we saw inexperienced drinkers women going one for one with 200lb male friends.
The I should be able to get completely legless meant often there friends would abandoned them leaving them to sober up.
Spiking happens but without proof I’m doubtful
I do sympathise with her, but it says in the article that she opted to not report it to the police, then in the second paragraph after she calls for more people to report it or it’ll be swept under the rug!
I had an ex girlfriend convinced she was spiked. Didn’t take into account she was a heavy drinking type 1 diabetic who would drink alco pops with double vodkas on an empty stomach. But because she only had 4 drinks and couldn’t stand someone spiked her.
Everybody is being let down by the emergency services atm. If someone comes in post symptoms and reports what happens, then it’s not an emergency. I can understand them not helping as it’s not considered an emergency at that point. If someone is bought in symptomatic then that’s different. But emergency departments are dying on their feet, and are for emergency cases that are currently a threat.
It’s grim that there aren’t any ways together these tests, but that’s where the focus should be for the fight, not blaming emergency services for not acting in a non-emergent situation, when they have trouble enough doing just that.
For everyone commenting about drug tests not showing signs of spiking, it’s entirely meaningless as it’s very difficult to test for or they just don’t test for most of the things someone would use (g / rc benzos / muscle relaxants etc). I wouldnt but I honestly believe I could come up with a list of 100 ways to spike someone without it being detected but even the most common ways wont be either (maybe common street drugs and some pharma benzos would be but none of these are ideal or are very hard to get hold of).
I think people want to pretend this isnt an issue because it’s a horrible truth but it happens and rarther than ignore victims and empower abusers. It reminds me of sweeping pedophiles under the rug in the 70s.
I’ve been spiked once where me and my parter ended up sharing the last drink of the night and she ended up unconscious in hospital and I was severely inebriated with a feeling that was 100% a benzo and alcohol combo, which I know because I’ve done that a lot for fun and its a familiar feeling. We had both been drinking and it could be easily written off as being drunk by some of the commenters here but why did I have that reaction with the exact familiar feeling, drinking the same amount as I normally do and have 2 men testing me as I left. Thank god I still had my south london aggression.
Another time I’m 99% a man attemped to but in a very obvious way so we just left the situation. His friend even told us not to drink it but downed it himself (probably didn’t mind a bit of g lol).
I don’t know how real ‘spiking’ is, I’ve only met one girl in real life who thinks they were spiked, ie, their drink had some drug in it. I kind of thought she was just drunk to be honest, as I didn’t see anyone who was lurking around to take advantage. So why would they do it? Weird.
One time I was at a gay bar and some guy gave me lots of drinks, but one of them made me feel instantly sick. He walked me outside to a taxi cab and before that forced me into an ally and did stuff to me, I was 14. I always wondered if that was what spiking was. I did remember what happened though, so maybe not.
I remembered it, but I couldn’t explain to the paramedic what happened, so I just went home.
No one believed me, so I didn’t believe that girl at uni. Everyone else did and she got a lot of symp, she wasn’t even raped or anything.
The key thing missed in all this is having a drink spiked is not an emergency, you don’t need to go to A&E. It’s a waste of resources to do a drug test to see what drug, if any, is in someone’s system.
If you are concerned about being spiked it’s a police issue, they can do testing.
This is poorly researched and shits on the NHS as usual. If it’s a crime, call the police – They have doctors and nurses for forensic tests.
Going to A+E and pissing in a tox pot which isn’t even admissible as evidence is not helpful to anyone – and if well enough to show up of your own accord, rarely needs any further medical attention.
This is not addressed in the article