NEWS: Herald Sun - 25/09/07 'Drink spiking rife: survey'

Drink spiking rife: survey
September 25, 2007 05:40pm

DRINK spikers looking for easy sex are preying on hundreds of young revellers at pubs and clubs, a shock study suggests.

A staggering one in four people recently surveyed claimed to be victims of sneaky drink spikers.

And those confessing to slipping drugs or alcohol into beverages often do it for fun or the chance of sex, the research found.

RMIT University sampled more than 800 people aged 18 to 35 on drink spiking experiences.

One quarter reported being victims of drink spiking, psychologist Bridget McPherson said

Most said they were caught out in licensed venues when leaving glasses unattended or accepting drinks without supervising their preparation.

"Some of the perpetrators expressed the belief that deliberately causing intoxication in others was acceptable," Ms McPherson said.

"Many who spiked someone else's drink were motivated by the belief they'd increase their chance of engaging in sexual activity.

"Drink spikers said it was `easier to approach people for sex if they're drunk or drug-affected'.

"Others listed `fun' as a motivation."

The results will be presented at the annual Australian Psychological Society Conference in Brisbane this week.

Ms McPherson said the overwhelming majority - 85 per cent - of victims failed to notify authorities.

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Herald Sun

Ms McPherson said the overwhelming majority - 85 per cent - of victims failed to notify authorities.

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Thats because theyre young girls who drank too much, had sex with a stranger then claimed date rape, or they just drank too much and thought it must be a spiking.

Anyone remember this article:

Drink-spike victims had one too many
Liz Porter
June 4, 2006

MANY young women who believed they were victims of drink spiking had instead drunk dangerously high levels of alcohol and had no date rape drugs in their system, ground-breaking research has shown.

Victims were more than five or six times over the .05 legal limit for driving in 37 per cent of cases. The alarming findings have prompted police and forensic doctors to call for campaigns to highlight the dangers of binge drinking to young women rather than the risks of drink-spiking.

The manager of Victoria Police's drug and alcohol strategy unit, Inspector Steve James, said the results confirmed his view that the incidence of drink-spiking had been exaggerated.

"Alcohol, in the majority of cases, is the problem. We have been saying this for years," he said.

Doctors at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine carried out a study of alcohol and drink-spiking — the first of its kind in Australia. They discovered that even though the average delay between the assault and a blood test was 11 hours, the average blood alcohol concentration in 37 per cent of the victims was between .22 and .33 at the time of the assault.

The doctors examined the files of 434 adult victims of sexual assault reported to Victoria Police between April 2002 and April 2003, identifying 76 as cases of suspected drink-spiking or "drug-facilitated sexual assault". But researchers found "unexpected" drugs in only 15 victims or 20 per cent of cases.

Moreover 13 of the 15 had also knowingly taken a range of other "psychoactive" drugs, including antidepressants and party drugs. No evidence was found of GHB or Rohypnol, two well-known "date rape" drugs.

Ninety-five per cent of victims in the survey were female, and the average age was 25.

VIFM staff forensic physician Angela Williams said the study was an attempt to find the truth about the much-publicised connection between drink-spiking and sexual assault.

Dr Williams said alcohol was the main risk to personal safety and that previous high-profile campaigns warning about the dangers of drink-spiking were tackling only a tiny area of the dangers faced by young women.

"When you teach young girls to cover their drinks and buy pretty straws or credit card-sized drink testers over the internet, you give the wrong message. It is less likely that there is an evil drink spiker lurking around ready to pop pills in your drink.

"Somebody wishing to offend looks for someone in a vulnerable situation. Having a lot of drinks and drugs on board, recreational or prescription, means you are less able to resist."

Helen Makregiorgos, manager of Centres Against Sexual Assault House, said it was impossible to generalise from the survey results because it drew on only the small proportion of victims of sexual assault who reported to police.

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The Age

Thread for this old article HERE

drplatypus said:

As ever, Johnboy is on the money; GHB is just NOT anywhere near the number 1 date rape drug- it IS the most worried about. Work out of WA shows NO GHB in ANY of the alleged drink spiking cases- it's all alcohol. We have the same results out SA. There's no doubt that drink-spiking happens; it's just almost always with ethanol. The best use for those coasters (apart from raising profile of safe bar behaviour, and the fact that GHB isn't nearly as safe as the world thinks it is) is to put them over your glasses to stop someone slipping you another shot of vodka

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This quote was from a while back in another thread, if the Doc has changed his opinion (due to kmore recent tests), or wants me to remove it, i will

But it would be good to hear what he has to say about this new article, if there has been any more findings of (real) drink spiking to be much more popular and positive tests these days.

I know GHB goes through you quick, but I heard higher levels can still be detected upto 6-12 hours after dosing? Where as another site said the window is like 22 minutes.

Another quote from a while back from Paul Dillon

Spokesperson Paul Dillon said: "I think undoubtedly drink spiking does occur, but it is a phenomenom that is in the social consiousness." There was an perception that drink spiking was a much greater danger than it actually is. "It's getting completely out of hand," he said. People are "putting two and two together and getting 86. We really do need to be careful about how we cover this area," he said.

There were three main types of drink spiking: the prank; the drug-assisted sexual assault; and the drug-assisted robbery, Dillon said. Most pranksters know their victims and stick around to look after them, he said, while in robberies and sexual assaults, "most occur when the person takes the other person home." That is, Dillon believed most drink spiking happens not in venues such as pubs and clubs, but in private homes, "where it's easier for a predator."

Reports of drinks being spiked with ecstasy and cocaine should be treated with scepticism, Dillon said. "Why would you put an ecstasy into someone else's drink?" The perception that the drug would either knock the person out or make them want to have sex was mistaken, he said. "That's not what it does," he said. "It's very difficult to actually spike someone's drink in a venue," he said, particularly when they are with friends.

Although the number of drink spiking reports made by people to police had increased, Dillon said it is important to remember that these are reports of belief, rather than actually executed spiking incidents. "There are times where people report days after [the incident], because they already have had other drugs in their system," he said.

Instead, Dillon cites alcohol, not illicit drugs, as "our greatest problem", including for drink spiking. He points to changing drinking habits that have women drinking as much as men, including high consumption of alcholic sodas. "They are not aware of how much they are drinking."

The NADRC said social attitudes to drinking were more of a threat than drink spiking, and Dillon gives the example of people buying triple-measures of alcohol for unsuspecting friends. He said the attitude that such practices are a favour are wrong. "That's a crime and you can be charged with physical assault," he said.

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It's a convenient excuse. I had a cynical chuckle when the Vic Premiers son was found unconscious on the beach and blamed it on the evils of drink spiking 8)

The little shit couldn't make those sort of excuses when he crashed his car drink driving and daddy had to quit politics over it 8(

It's way over hyped but, sadly, it does happen. I know someone whose mother was bashed and raped after getting spiked, she was a mid-aged professional and definitely not a shrill drunk making excuses for herself

Not saying it doesn't happen. Actually I knew a girl who's friend died from a spiking in Melbourne, never heard of tox reports though or anything in the media. But she was ruined over it, as it was her best friend she knew through school. She had one drink, left it unattented in a busy club, drank the rest and fell unconscious soon after and couldnt be revived.

Now it was her first time drinking alcohol, and it was her 18th birthday. The alcohol COULD of killed her but one drink seems unlikely. Did she have a bad heart? Was she dancing alot before hand? I never got the answers as you can't really question someone thats crying about specifics. But I was interested to know if it was a real spiking or not. Surely if it was she would taste 1,4b or GBL, or even GHB. Is there any tranquilisers or MAOis that have no real taste, and come in capsule form? A high dose of clonazepam maybe?

Its just that it seems pretty much every girl I know has a drink spiking story, and it was always "happy hour" time. Ranging from what they thoght was roofies, G, Ketamine, Ecstacy, LSD. One girl claimed she saw 4 pink pills dissolving in her drink one night after leaving it alone for a minute.. 4?? Apparently her ex-drug using friend said they were ecstasy and not pharmecutical. Why would someone date rape someone using 4 pills of MDMA?

I've seen joke spikings occur and been victum of one, the joke spiking I saw wasn't really funny though, because they put two pills in his drink after he'd been drinking very heavily.. and he was just out of it and throwing up everywhere. Not knowing what hit him, I only saw the last parts of it and it wasn't funny.

I don't see the point in asking whether people thought they had been the victim of drinks spiking? Surely it would be more scientifically interesting to expand the testing and examine more blood tests to confirm the real 'prevalance'. Peoples perception has a lot to answer for......MDMA, ICE and G for example. They all conjur images and thoughts but some are incorrect.

I used to know an undercover cop, and she spent almost a year at one of Melbourne's most well known venues trying to trap an apparent drink spiker.

Now she was HOT. And I mean absolutely stunning. Gorgeous (which is why she was never picked as an undercover)...and after a year they gave up, and yet there were more than a few reports by young girls getting drink spiked.

In the end they had to admit it was once again a case of 'stupid young girls' drinking too much (and in a hell of a lot of cases necking a few pills as well) waking up the next day to their shock (and often their parent's shock) that they'd slept with some random. Naturally he must have spiked their drink.

Interesting that people put such credence in the interviewing victims of supposed drink spiking, and seem to ignore the studies and facts. Funny little VIFM and their claim that their study of just over 400... Our study looked at over 3000 patients- everyone presenting to the RAH with clinical evidence of intoxication including those claiming to have their drinks spiked. Of the mere 99 (a minute amount) actually alleging drink spiking, only 4 had GHB on board, and 8 had benzos. 68 were positive for alcohol.
For those of you who want the detail, it can be found at
www.dassa.sa.gov.au/webdata/resources/files/Monograph_19.pdf

Drink-spike motives: fun and sex
Annalise Walliker
September 26, 2007 12:00am

ALMOST half of all drink spikers say they do it for fun, according to a new report by a Melbourne psychologist.

In a groundbreaking nationwide study by RMIT University, psychologist Bridget McPherson discovered sex was foremost on the perpetrators' minds.

For the first time, the study identifies what motivates people to spike drinks, and who they are.

Almost one-third of perpetrators said they thought spiking a victim's drink would put them "in the mood" for sex.

One in five said that it was easier to approach someone for sex if the victim was drugged or drunk.

Males who used drugs or alcohol didn't feel they needed to look out for their mates on a night out, and participants in casual sex were more likely to spike someone's drink, the study found.

Disturbingly, most of those who had admitted to drink-spiking said they would probably do it again.

The explosive results are being presented at the Australian Psychology Society's annual convention in Brisbane today and Friday.

A victim of drink-spiking herself, Ms McPherson, 27, said she was blown away by the results.

"I found it quite shocking and scary as personally I would never perceive drink-spiking to be something humourous and fun," she said.

"The fact that perpetrators see it as something really fun, when victims see it as something really horrible, is a fascinating contradiction and quite a scary one."

Ms McPherson said that adding any substance, including alcohol, to a drink without the consumer's consent or knowledge could be considered drink-spiking.

The survey of 805 people aged between 18 and 35 Australia-wide also found:

ABOUT half admitted to deliberately mixing cocktails too strong to get their victim more drunk.

SIXTEEN per cent said they had added extra alcohol shots to alcoholic drinks, including wine and beer.

SIX per cent had added alcohol to non-alcoholic drinks, including soft drinks or hot chocolate.

ONLY one per cent admitted to adding drugs to a person's drink.

"The reported incidence of adding drugs to a drink was quite low," Ms McPherson said.

"But if you think about it, if you go to a nightclub where there's 200 people, two of these people will have drugged someone's drink before."

A quarter of those surveyed also said they had been a victim of drink-spiking at least once, but only 15 per cent reported it.

Statistics show up to 4000 Australians are the victims of drink spiking each year.

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Herald Sun

I'm sure there are a lot of people who make false claims of drink spiking after a few too many themselves. However in my teenage years, in the crowd I associated with at the time I experienced spiking happen on many occasions.

One particular kid would regularly be a target as some would exploit his willingness to consume alcohol, despite having a weak liver. It would only take 3-4 drinks to make him vomit, and on many occasions he was given a mixed drink that were said to be weak but with some masking contained around 6-8 standard drinks.

Another kid got exploited many times over his willingness to "get high" from weed. It was considered that he gave himself strong placebo effects when he smoked cones, because he would act like he was "tripping" and would do some bizarre and annoying things whenever he was given a cone. So often he was packed cones which contained some nasty things like stems, dirt and mulled lawn clippings. He would act like he was really high from it, much to the amusement of some of the others.

Another kid received a spiking as a punishment for ruining a group acid trip. For the majority of the experience he was saying very deep and hurtful words, basically showing prejudice towards everything in life, and expressing a desire to do some "charles manson" style acts. With a head full of acid those sorts of comments really affected the experience in a negative way, and so around the 12 hour mark when we were all about to take some valium and go to sleep, we decided to substitute this guys dose with 2 ritalin. I'll admit that it was a pretty low act, and definitely something I'd speak out against these days, but at the time (a teenager, stoned, on acid with valium kicking in) it seemed hilarious.

Apart from all these callous spikings done solely for the humor of others, I've seen it happen in a less viscious manner as well. A friend, who was essentially straight edge, had consumed a fair few beers and was getting rather sluggish, not really in the mood for partying anymore. He couldn't leave till his friends did, and they were all on meth so that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. So another friend put a small amount (20mg) of meth in one of his drinks to give him a small "pick up". It wasn't strong enough for him to realise, but it did its job, and the guy reckoned he had an awesome night. A few days later they told him what they'd done, and although he seemed shocked, he wasn't angry and thanked them for showing him the experience. That said, things could have turned out pretty bad if he had some kind of severe reaction to it, so even if it was done with good intentions, it was hardly a responsible act.

I think spiking definitely exists, but not so much in the form that some of the media would like you to believe. People that spike drinks solely with "date rape" in mind would be few and far between. Those doing it to friends for humor or as a treat would be far more common in my opinion.

Agreed.

What about people that are given one trip at a rave, that is actually 4 folded to look like one, when they're already chopped on pills......

I've claimed I had my drink spiked before, I know it wasn't ... well I assume it wasn't, but I had essentially sculled a shite load of booze and then a few cups of goon... I proceeded to do a heap of really, really, really embarrassing shit infront of like 150 people.

Anyway I woke up the next day not remembering much. My behavior was extremely self-destructive because I was just fucked in the head at that point in my life and it was just much easier to explain that I had my drink spiked.

I've joked with some mates about how it would be funny to give acid to various different people who are anti-acid or fully anti-drugs. I haven't even thought about ACTUALLY doing it though. gah.

Thats evil, especially if they haven't done drugs before. Have being a victum of this at least I knew what was going on half an hour after my drink, and was happy, but if I was in a shitty or depressed or anxious mood, I woulda punched some skulls.

[EDIT:Removed unnecessary content. Lil Angel15]

People that spike drinks solely with "date rape" in mind would be few and far between. Those doing it to friends for humor or as a treat would be far more common in my opinion.

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While I don't doubt for a minute that most cases of reported drink spiking are alcohol related, I am reminded of a series of events that occurred in this area some years ago, which in all likelihood involved another drug. We were friends with some of the victims in this story, so this was very close to home.

While rumours had abounded for some time, we first knew someone was doing something they shouldn't when a friend explained how she had woken up very groggy in a bedroom in a strange house. She had been sexually assaulted. Hearing voices in the next room, she decided to sneak out the bedroom window, and while she didn't recall seeing anyone, she did note the address of the house while scarpering home. Assuming something had happened, as her story was relayed to us we felt we knew who one of the possible perpetrators might be.

Anyway, she didn't press charges. It was when a friend's girlfriend had an encounter that things got very serious. The girl had been given a lift home after feeling very tired at a recovery party and awoke while being sexually assaulted. Up until that incident, no-one even remotely suspected the guy accused and he wasn't the one we initially suspected, although both were part of a group that hung together. The perpetrator had been at nearly all our parties over the years and was regarded as a nice guy - quiet, but nice, but as word spread, other girls from our group mentioned they'd experienced unusual events where they'd forgotten everything from the time of leaving the party to waking at home the next day. While that alone was probably not that uncommon in those days - waking with little recollection of the previous night - in every case discussed, the same person had given the girls a ride home.


The friend's girl had gone straight to the police station following the incident but a series of very sus events meant she was left waiting for many hours for an examination. Weary and still shaken, she left before she saw a doctor. There's more to this than meets the eye, but I'll leave it at that......

The girl went ahead and proceeded with charging the individual but before officially doing so, CIB decided to set the guy up at a club, and believe it or not, they actually got him on video while spiking the woman cop's drink. Within a week of it being in the local paper, other women had come forward with almost identical stories.

Rumours then spread about the influential associates of this group and how the guy would never be found guilty in Qld.

The case seemed pretty open and shut to us, and as the trial went ahead a conviction looking certain. However, either the prosecution was terrible, the defence was amazing or something/ someone from higher above intervened, as many weeks later the guy was found not guilty and got off scott free.


We were stunned. They caught the guy in the act didn't they?

So what happened to the perpetrator and his cohorts? The guy who was acquitted left the area but still lives within 60km, and the cohorts are still in town and still in business. Since then other stories have surfaced but afaik no-one has been game enough to press charges



As mentioned, alcohol is no doubt the most widely used drug in spikings, but I ask you that if rohynol or hypnovel or one of the other memory affecting benzos are in the hands of such perpetrators, how many unreported spikings are out there? Let's face it, if you can't remember many/ any details, how can you ever hope to get a conviction?


In New Zealand many clubs operate be having staff watch your drinks. If a drink is left unchecked, the staff will place a warning label on the drink, advising it be discarded and additional drinks not be left unguarded. This policy should be universal in all Australian clubs IMO and club owners/managers should be held responsible for both increasing awareness, and for any non-alcohol spiking that occurs.

Still, that won't prevent the majority of drink spikings which no doubt result from supplying drinks with extra alcohol. As is often mentioned, giving a mate an extra shot, nip, large glass of beer etc is often regarded as the "done thing" - an Aussie tradition almost. It was certainly no different in New Zealand when I was a teenager. However, by rights, getting someone drunk who hadn't intended to get drunk is no better than slipping someone an extra dose of drug X without consent. It should carry appropriate penalties and be widely discouraged. If you want to give your mate an extra nip, ask him first. Being persuasive might raise a moral eyebrow, but pretending a drink is as ordered when it's not, is deception, simple as that, and IMO should be dealt with accordingly.