The sobering truth about drink-spiking — and the consequences
The Irish Examiner recently ran an online questionnaire, asking readers to share their experiences of how fear of spiking affects their behaviour on a night-out.
THOUSANDS of third-level students are heading to campuses as college resumes, some of those students for the first time.
It’s an exciting transition from school, what with new subjects, meeting new people and, of course, enjoying the nightlife.
Fresher’s Week, in particular, is a huge social event that encourages new students to get involved and make friends.
Connecting with other students in a bar or nightclub is an age-old way to socialise, but the risk of your drink being spiked when in an unfamiliar environment can be higher.
‘Spiking’ refers to when someone adds drugs or alcohol to another person’s drink without their knowledge, done to sexually abuse someone or to steal from them or for the ‘entertainment’ of seeing someone lose control.
The Irish Examiner recently ran an online questionnaire, asking readers to share their experiences of how fear of spiking affects their behaviour on a night-out.
Many respondents said they would never leave their drink unattended, even if that meant bringing it to the bathroom, while others said they would never accept a drink from someone they didn’t know.
Most said they covered their drink with a bar mat, hand, or a thumb, if it was a bottle.
One respondent said: “[I would] drink mostly from bottles, so that I can easily cover the top. If drinking from a glass, [I would] keep it covered with my palm, when possible or drink it quickly, so I’m not carrying an open glass around.”
Another said: “I cover my drink when I hold it, never leave it unattended, and don’t let strangers buy me a drink, unless I watch the bar person pour it and hand it straight to me.”
Their experiences are not uncommon. As a teenager, I mostly socialised in local venues and had a group of friends looking out for me. When I started college and went out in Dublin city centre, it opened my eyes to the potential dangers.
‘Covering up’ a crime
Dola Twomey, from Sexual Violence Centre Cork, says that covering a drink is a subtle form of “victim blaming”. Makeshift covers for drinks, whether bar mats or bought online, shouldn’t be the solution to spiking, she says.
“A cover is not going to dissuade [others from spiking],” she says.
Twomey is keen to flip the narrative to “don’t spike” rather than “don’t get spiked”.
A report by An Garda Siochana on spiking released in May states, “There is no specific crime type of spiking.”
Instead, spiking can be reported as an “independent offence (poisoning) or be used by offenders to facilitate committing other crimes”.
The report states that the number of spiking incidents from 2020 to 2023, recorded as ‘poisoning’, came to 95, while 78 incidents were recorded under the ‘sexual offences’ group. The remaining 66 incidents were under ‘assaults’.
In a statement to the Irish Examiner, the gardaí say the force “encourages any victims of spiking, or similar incidents, to come forward and report to their local Garda station”.
“We treat all reports of spiking with the utmost seriousness, conducting thorough investigations, including toxicology tests, to determine the nature of each case.
“Any incident of this nature (poisoning, assault, sexual assault), including those potentially linked to spiking, will be investigated by local gardaí, supported by Divisional Protective Services Units.”
Commenting on the Garda report, Rachel Morrogh, CEO of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, says: “It showed that around 1% of total sexual assaults reported to the gardaí featured a reported spiking incident. In incidents where spiking was reported, one in two recorded that a drink was spiked, and one in four recorded that a needle was used.
“However, the low number of reported spiking incidents to gardaí is likely a drop in the ocean, given the small numbers of people who report sexual violence to gardaí overall. Added to this is a reluctance of victims of sexual violence to come forward, if they have been using drugs or alcohol themselves, because they feel they were in some way to blame.”
Spiking ‘database’
Working alongside the Sexual Violence Centre Cork, Safe Gigs Ireland has developed a spiking hub to record spiking incidences and to support victims.
Every report is believed, because, as Twomey outlines, those who come to discuss what happened to them have no reason to lie or to hide that they may have taken something themselves.
Though spiking is sometimes a precursor to sexual assault and theft, drinks are now more often spiked for entertainment, Twomey says. “It’s done because it can be done. It’s a power gain. The message is, ‘I can do whatever I like, and there is nothing you can do about it’.
“That means that the culprit is less likely to be the stranger in the corner or the weird-looking person spiking [your drink], it’s people in your friend group who actually think, ‘This is hilarious’.”
But there is nothing funny about being spiked.
According to the HSE, signs of spiking include nausea, dizziness, feeling faint or sleepy, confusion or disorientation, difficulty walking, talking, concentrating, or controlling your body, memory loss, and unconsciousness.
Getting spiked can also leave those affected feeling traumatised, betrayed, ashamed, and embarrassed. And it can happen to people of all ages.
The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre has noticed a new trend among callers to its helpline. “It used to be young people who raised drug-facilitated sexual assault, but this has widened to include older people, and we want to spread the message that anyone can be spiked. There’s no typical victim,” says Morrogh.
The Irish Examiner spoke to 32-year-old ‘Jack’*, who was spiked three years ago at a party he attended with his then-girlfriend.
The couple hadn’t been together long, and he was apprehensive about going with people he didn’t know, including men with whom his girlfriend had been romantically involved. He also wasn’t familiar with the place.
Jack left his beer down “for a second”, reckoning it would be safe because it was a house party. When he started drinking it again, he “immediately noticed that there was something foul about the taste”.
The next thing he remembered was waking up in hospital 16 hours later with only his pants on. He didn’t have his phone, wallet, keys, or anything else.
He had to be resuscitated twice.
Jack says he was not drug-tested and was discharged soon after he came around.
After making his way to his car and using a borrowed phone to call his girlfriend, he says she filled in the blanks about what had happened the night before.
He concluded his drink had been spiked and that Gamma-hydroxybutyrate, or GHB, was most likely the drug used. GHB produces feelings of euphoria, confidence, relaxation, and sociability.
“Not only are you out of it, and you’ve no control over yourself, but you are totally making yourself available in the worst way imaginable to anyone who might want to take advantage of it,” says Jack.
“In my case, I was acting so grotesquely. I was touching and feeling up my girlfriend’s friends, and I had no awareness of doing it.
“The stories I was being told about what I did were ridiculous. I stripped myself naked. I ran around barking like a dog.”
Siobhra Weir, 25, from Dublin, was heading to a nightclub after a 21st birthday when she was spiked.
“I was dancing away on the dancefloor with my drink, having a good time. I finished my drink and I said to my boyfriend, ‘I’m going to go to the bathroom, because I feel a little sick.’
“As soon as I got [there], everything started getting dizzy and swirly. At this point, I had only had two drinks in the nightclub.”
She can remember sitting on the floor, but the rest of the night is a blur. One thing that comes to mind is everyone walking by saying how drunk she was.
When the bouncers spotted her, they “dragged” her out of the nightclub. “They weren’t very sympathetic. They just thought I was drunk.”
On-site paramedics tended to Weir, who was vomiting, and found her blood pressure was low. They told her boyfriend and friends that they believed her drink had been spiked.
“I just felt so out of it. It was like myself looking back on my body. I don’t remember anything,” she says.
Like Jack, she also felt shame about what had happened.
“Afterwards, I felt stupid. I thought, ‘How did I get myself into this situation?’ But I didn’t get myself into this situation,” Weir says.
The experience has changed how she acts on a night out. She keeps her drink close to her and ensures her friends do the same. Getting spiked has also made her wary when socialising.
“Knowing that someone went out of their way to do this to someone really does play [on my mind] because what were their intentions? To know that someone did that out of spite or jealousy or for the craic is just beyond me. It’s so inhumane.”
Special training for staff
For people who work with students, the challenge of spiking is factored in to every event they organise.
Lucrecia Luna Smee, University College Cork Student Union’s welfare officer, says they always consider it.
This year, the union is ensuring all staff in bars, clubs, or pubs hosting outside student events have spiking training for their staff, she says.
“It’s an ever-present issue and as much as we try to fight it, it’s a really sad reality that it’s going to stick around for a good while longer,” she says.
Smee says she’s been spiked multiple times in Cork and elsewhere and, as a result, would know the places that would be considered a “hotspot”.
However, she says controlling outside venues for events like Fresher’s Week is hard.
“What we can do is make sure all the students are informed. Fresher’s Week and the weeks surrounding [it] — they’re a big red zone when it comes to sexual violence and spiking because, obviously, first-years just get excited. People will go a bit mad. And that leads to some awful stuff,” says Smee.
“It’s better to have the information and not need it than to need it and not have it.”
Twomey recalls a venue in Cork that often hosted UCC society events and was well-known for spiking. To tackle this, posters with anti-spiking messages were placed around the venue.
That year, there “wasn’t one” report of spiking, she says.
“Those posters said: ‘We’re on to spiking. It’s not OK to spike people here.’ And the message people got was, ‘We’re watching.’”
While poster campaigns can raise some awareness within campus buildings, social media plays a significant role in dealing with the problem, with welfare officers nationwide using it to communicate with students.
Fatima Said, Technological University Dublin’s welfare and equality officer, says that as a students’ union, they try to target all students, as anyone can be spiked.
She says, “Our students are very diverse, from different backgrounds. We have Muslims who don’t drink. Anyone can be spiked, and your water can be spiked. We try to educate everyone.
“Whenever you’re in a social gathering, mind yourselves.”
- Contact An Garda Siochana or reach out for support from Sexual Violence Centre Cork, Rape Crisis Centre and Sexual Assault Treatment Units across the country.
- *Name has been changed
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