Safe drinking in bars
Police statistics show that they receive thousands of reports of drink-spiking each year. Some of these are so-called harmless pranks with a shot or two of extra alcohol, but some involve more serious drugs designed to incapacitate victims for the purpose of sexual assault or robbery.
The Roofie Foundation, a charity set up to help drug-assisted rape victims, warn that as many as 900 cases of rape and 2,000 cases of robbery occur each year. That's something to think about next time you accept a drink bought by an admiring stranger or leave your drink unattended while you nip to the loo.
Drink-spiking is nothing new but it has become more sinister in recent years. There have been frightening reports of women who wake up in a strange place with physical signs of rape yet no knowledge of what had happened. Victims have woken up in their own beds having been sedated and escorted home by their attacker.
Not all victims are female. Roofie says that one-in-10 victims of drug-assisted sexual assault are male.
The effects of drink-spiking depend on a number of things including your size, weight and the combination of the drugs and alcohol ingested. You can become unconscious and not able to defend yourself or remember what happened.
The problem is that the signs of being spiked can easily be misread as the effects of excessive drinking. These include feeling drowsy, dizzy, disorientated, experiencing a loss of motor skills, slurred speech, memory loss, impaired judgement, loss of consciousness, visual disturbances and nausea. Would you think twice if you saw a man helping a woman out of a bar in a drunken state?
Alcohol is the most common drug used and despite being a legal substance, spiking a drink with it is still a serious criminal offence.
The more dangerous substances have been dubbed date rape drugs such as gamma hydroxybutyrate acid (GHB) and rohypnol. These can be added to drinks without visible odour or trace and can quickly induce loss of consciousness.
The effects of GHB include hallucinations, extreme drowsiness, vomiting, convulsions or seizures and unconsciousness.
The sleeping pill rohypnol, which is ten times stronger than valium, impairs motor skills and judgement, causes drowsiness, dizziness, confusion, amnesia and blackouts lasting eight to 24 hours after ingestion if combined with enough alcohol.
Safety advice for drinking in bars, clubs or on holiday
- Never accept a drink from a stranger that you did not see opened or poured.
- If someone offers to buy you a drink, go with them to the bar.
- Never leave drinks unattended.
- Be aware of your own personal tolerance to alcohol. If you feel odd, nauseous, drunk or disorientated after only a couple of drinks there is a chance that your drink has been spiked.
- If you are concerned, ask someone you trust to take you to a safe place. If you are alone, on a first date or you can't find your friends, tell the staff behind the bar and ask them to stay with you until help arrives.
- Be aware that many victims of drug-assisted rape are assaulted by people they know, in many cases by work mates, colleagues or acquaintances. Be sure that you implicitly trust someone before asking for help, especially if you are requesting to be taken home.
- Keep an eye on your friends. If someone collapses and is unconscious, call an ambulance immediately - but do not leave them alone.
- Under no circumstances let a stranger or acquaintance take you out of the bar or put you in a cab. They are likely to be responsible for spiking your drink.
- If you think your drink has been spiked, or you have been assaulted or robbed, call the police promptly. Your doctor can test for the presence of traces of certain drugs through urine or blood tests within 24 hours. Alternatively call the Roofie Foundation's 24-hour helpline on 0800 7832980.
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