AN increasing number of men are having their drinks spiked and then being mugged or sexually assaulted, NSW Police said.
Detective Superintendent David Laidlaw, commander of the NSW Drug Squad, said men should be as wary of drink spiking as women.
"It's a misnomer that it doesn't happen to men, because it does," he said.
"The largest number of drink-spiking complaints obviously involve women, but there's been an increase in allegations from men over the last two years."
In one recent case, a solid, 192cm-tall man accepted a drink from a stranger in a city bar and, a short time later, found himself feeling disoriented.
"Five minutes before I'd been fine and talking business, and instantly, I couldn't stand up, I felt dizzy and I had real trouble getting up the stairs," said the man, a senior business executive who declined to be named.
When he made it to the street, the drink buyer materialised, helped him into a cab and joined him for the ride home.
"It took me a while to realise there was someone in the cab with me, because I'd virtually passed out by this stage," the victim said.
When he reached home in Bellevue Hill, the victim was knocked to the ground after leaving the cab.
The assailant managed to steal his wallet and was scrabbling to get his $5000 Cartier watch off his wrist when a neighbour intervened. The attacker fled.
"I'm lucky it wasn't worse, I could have been hurt," the victim said. "At the end of the day, I didn't really lose anything, just some cash.
"I was just amazed that they were brazen enough to get into the taxi. I'm a big guy, but it didn't matter to them."
"Mostly it's a case of guys being rolled, but there have been incidents of sexual assaults on men," Det Laidlaw said.
"Men need to be wary, and not accept drinks from anyone, or leave their drinks unattended, because these people are looking for easy marks."