Flexistentialist
Bluelight Crew
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Drink spike claims in doubt
Keith Moor
The Herald Sun
11may04
SEX attacks after drink-spiking are nowhere near as common as the community is led to believe, according to research.
The Australian study says there is an element of urban myth surrounding the current hysteria over drink-spiking.
It suggests drink-spiking claims might be a convenient excuse for doing something the supposed victims later regret -- such as having sex with somebody they just met.
The researchers say in many cases young females are simply under-estimating the effect of their alcohol intake.
Almost 80 per cent of supposed drink-spiking victims tested were drunk, not drugged. But researchers say they are not rejecting all drink-spiking reports as fabrication.
But they say hard evidence shows the hysteria surrounding drink-spiking is not warranted.
Their findings were revealed during this week's international drug conference in Alice Springs.
The Australasian Drug Strategy conference heard the study, by the West Australian police's alcohol and drug unit, blamed alcohol for the condition of 78 per cent of the suspected drink-spiking victims tested.
Blood and urine samples taken from supposed drink-spiking victims within 12 hours also revealed the expected date-rape drugs (benzodiazepines such as Rohypnol and GHB,) were only found in four out of 83 cases.
Forty-three per cent of them had blood-alcohol readings of between .08 and .15, and 23 per cent were over .15.
The conference was told a similar US study involving 3303 supposed drink-spiking victims also found a high (41 per cent) presence of alcohol; only 0.33 per cent were found to have actually taken date-rape drugs.
"The results do not support the concept of a commonly occurring date rape scenario in which the victim's drink is covertly spiked," the US study concluded.
Keith Moor
The Herald Sun
11may04
SEX attacks after drink-spiking are nowhere near as common as the community is led to believe, according to research.
The Australian study says there is an element of urban myth surrounding the current hysteria over drink-spiking.
It suggests drink-spiking claims might be a convenient excuse for doing something the supposed victims later regret -- such as having sex with somebody they just met.
The researchers say in many cases young females are simply under-estimating the effect of their alcohol intake.
Almost 80 per cent of supposed drink-spiking victims tested were drunk, not drugged. But researchers say they are not rejecting all drink-spiking reports as fabrication.
But they say hard evidence shows the hysteria surrounding drink-spiking is not warranted.
Their findings were revealed during this week's international drug conference in Alice Springs.
The Australasian Drug Strategy conference heard the study, by the West Australian police's alcohol and drug unit, blamed alcohol for the condition of 78 per cent of the suspected drink-spiking victims tested.
Blood and urine samples taken from supposed drink-spiking victims within 12 hours also revealed the expected date-rape drugs (benzodiazepines such as Rohypnol and GHB,) were only found in four out of 83 cases.
Forty-three per cent of them had blood-alcohol readings of between .08 and .15, and 23 per cent were over .15.
The conference was told a similar US study involving 3303 supposed drink-spiking victims also found a high (41 per cent) presence of alcohol; only 0.33 per cent were found to have actually taken date-rape drugs.
"The results do not support the concept of a commonly occurring date rape scenario in which the victim's drink is covertly spiked," the US study concluded.
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
