Warning: This article contains real experiences of spiking, which some readers may find distressing.
In the UK, spiking is happening to thousands every week. Victims are often left confused, unsupported and without justice. With cases rising across the UK, urgent questions remain about why so little is being done to stop it.
You wake up with bright lights staring you in the face, with medics standing around you. You have ECG pads on your upper body, covered in sick and a sore chest from heaving.
You start to wonder how or why you ended up here.
The last thing you remember is heading to your seats to see JLS perform live. You remember falling over, but you shrugged it off as being slightly tipsy after having a few drinks beforehand. You’re told that you collapsed on the floor and were continuously throwing up.
You’re still confused about how or why you ended up here.
It wasn’t until your mum saw the aftermath that she realised you had been spiked. Your eyes were massively dilated, you were extremely sweaty, and you couldn’t speak properly.
That night, Laura* joined the other 1.2 million UK adults who fell victim to being spiked in 2023.
It started when Laura, her sister and her mum went to a JLS concert at the O2. They checked into their hotel room and had a few drinks. This is when she started to feel slightly tipsy but not drunk.
As they went to get their seats, Laura remembers feeling emotional. She went to the toilet and rang her boyfriend while crying. When she returned, she tripped and fell.
This is the last thing she remembers.
They were quickly escorted out of the area where they were sitting and taken to the emergency room at the O2. The medical staff did what they could, but like many victims, Laura ended up at the hospital.
“I went to the hospital the night of the incident, but they couldn’t do anything for me as they said it’s just like drinking, so I should just sleep it off and stay hydrated,” says Laura as she looks back at the traumatic night.
“The hospital didn’t seem surprised I was from the O2, as they’d had lots of cases from there previously, which kind of solidified it for me. They wouldn’t take and test a blood sample as they didn’t have the means to send it as evidence. It would have been a waste of resources for them,” she says.
Drinkaware found that 90% of victims don’t contact the police, with half of these not seeing the point in doing so. But Laura’s case was different, and the police were contacted.
Laura’s Mum reported the crime on the London crime report page. The police came to her house on the Sunday and took a urine sample and asked her to talk through what had happened. But due to the lack of CCTV coverage in the area, the case was closed. Laura and her family haven’t received any type of justice for what happened to her that night.
“I felt so emotional and fatigued after the incident, and I felt robbed because I couldn’t remember four hours of my life,” Laura says. “I had awful anxiety because, although I was assured I was never alone, I had a sickening feeling that I would never know if anything happened.”
It took Laura weeks to mentally recover from the spiking. “It made me super nervous when it comes to social events. If it can happen at a JLS concert, it can happen anywhere.”
While spiking is a traumatic experience for those living it, it can also be a scary thing for family members.
Michelle* watched the aftermath of her daughter being spiked.
It was summer 2024, and Michelle’s daughter, Amber*, had been out for bottomless brunch. At 6 pm, she got a phone call from her daughter asking where she was. Amber couldn’t understand that Michelle was at home, and she just seemed very confused about minute details.
After Amber fell out of the car once arriving home, Michelle and the family just assumed that she was drunk. And it wasn’t until she started convulsing that they thought something was seriously wrong.
Michelle rang an ambulance, with the wait time being an hour. Amber was still confused and convulsing, and she had now lost all mobility skills.
“After another 20 minutes, I called [emergency services] as my daughter was going in and out of consciousness. They told me to put her in the recovery position, but she seemed worse in this position and was gagging and retching,” says Michelle.
Once the paramedics arrived, they stayed for about 15 to 20 minutes. They informed Michelle that if she were taken to the hospital, Amber would be there just for observations, so they made the decision to keep her at home and take care of her in comfort.
Michelle and her family kept a close eye on her throughout the evening and overnight, and she seemed mostly recovered, but it took her a few days to be back to her normal self.
“This was an extremely frightening experience for all of us to witness. There is no way that alcohol alone would have this effect on a person. My daughter enjoys a drink most weekends but is very sensible and never gets more than just a bit tipsy,” Michelle says.
What needs to change?
To prevent the number of people being spiked, in 2024, the government announced plans to make spiking a new criminal offence. Alongside this, they are training thousands of staff working in the nighttime economy on how to spot and tackle spiking.
The training will equip staff with skills to prevent incidents, support victims and aid the police with collecting evidence.
“It should be a separate crime because it’s such an awful thing which happens far too often,” says Laura. “It shouldn’t be a normal thing which lots of people, mostly girls, experience. It’s another thing which is perpetuating violence against women, and it makes me so angry.”
“In order to end drink spiking, they need to be harsher on punishments. If there had been CCTV, the person who spiked me would have been caught,” says Laura. “The punishment should be the same as poisoning – I don’t see how it is any different.”
Laura would rather be made to queue for slightly longer, while they rigorously check everyone, if it meant that everyone would be safe while at events.
To reduce spiking cases, Michelle wants more venues to have spiking testing kits in their facilities for victims. This is the law in California. All bars and nightclubs by law must have testing kits – otherwise they run the risk of state fines or having their liquor license suspended.
In the UK, you can buy drink spiking detection kits, with many websites offering next-day delivery if ordered before a certain time.
How to prevent being spiked?
Drink spiking is never the victim’s fault – the blame will always lie with the perpetrator, and an end will only be seen when there is more education surrounding this type of violence.
However, there are a range of ways that the risk of being spiked can be reduced.
- Never leave a drink unattended,
- Don’t accept a drink from a stranger – no matter who it is,
- Stay close to your friends and try never to leave someone alone,
- Use drink covers and bottle stoppers.
Help is out there.
If you witness a spiking, the first thing to do is to tell a member of staff or a security guard. Don’t hesitate to call the emergency services if the victim deteriorates. And always stay with them until they are safe to go home, or the ambulance team arrives.
Charities such as Stamp Out Spiking and Spike Aware UK are also available to support victims.
“We help with directing victims to appropriate support- mental health services, rape crisis, victim support etc,” says a Spokesperson for Stamp Out Spiking.
*In this feature, the names of the victims and family members have been changed to protect their identities.
