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Drink spiking all in your head - study
By Danny Rose
AAP
June 15, 2009 04:27pm
SUSPECTED victims of drink spiking are more likely to be suffering from drugs and alcohol they have willingly consumed, according to Australian research.
Of 100 suspected drink-spiking cases reviewed in a West Australian study, none were found to involve being slipped a sedative or illicit drug.
What emerged instead was a concerning picture of excess alcohol and illegal drug use by people - usually young women - at the centre of these drink-spiking claims.
"The public's perception that it's a guy putting a sedative drug into a woman's drink, at a pub or a club, we just didn't find that at all," Dr Mark Little, a clinical toxicologist at the Royal Perth Hospital, said.
"As a community, we have a bigger problem with illicit drug use and alcohol binge drinking than we do with drink spiking."
The study took in 101 people who were taken to two Perth hospitals as suspected victims of drink spiking over 19 months.
Almost 90 per cent were female, and a majority of these were aged 25 or younger.
About 70 per cent of the cases involved an alleged drink spiking at a nightclub or hotel, usually in the four hours straddling midnight and over a weekend.
Dr Little said tests showed these people had an average blood alcohol level of .096 on arrival at hospital - almost double the legal limit for driving.
More than a quarter (28 per cent) had illicit drugs, mainly amphetamines and cannabis, in their system, which they admitted taking.
"We did not identify a single case where a sedative drug was likely to have been illegally placed in a drink," Dr Little said.
He added there were five cases in which a person's stated alcohol intake substantially did not match their blood alcohol level.
These were possibly cases in which soft drinks were unknowingly topped up with alcohol, or alcoholic drinks made extra strong.
"It's more the case of the girl who likes vodka and orange, let's give her a double, a triple (shot of vodka)," Dr Little said.
"We also found nearly all people were unconcerned with the amount of alcohol they had drank.
"When we said the average dose was about eight standard drinks ... they weren't concerned about that at all."
When confronted with their test results, Dr Little said 35 per cent of the study participants continued to believe they had been spiked.
He concludes real cases of drink spiking involving sedating or illicit drugs are "rare", and "if drink spiking is going to occur, it will probably involve alcohol".
The study was conducted in the emergency departments of Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Joondalup Health Campus in Perth.
Dr Little's research is published in the journal Emergency Medicine Australasia.
News.com.au
