Christmas is all about celebrations and bringing good cheer to the young and the old, but ahead of the festive period not everyone is feeling as excited about all the work’s do’s, family parties and nights out with friends that are fast approaching.
Here a brave woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, shares her account of personal and traumatic experiences with spiking and how it has changed the way she lives her life. Are the police and government doing enough for these victims?
“The incident occurred in 2021 when I was freshly 18-years-old. I have never really opened up about my spiking experience before as I was never made to feel comfortable enough to admit what had happened and I felt as though people wouldn’t understand the extent of what I had been through.
I had just finished work and was going out for just one drink before heading home, as it was around the Christmas/Winter period and all my friends were out. It was also a weekend so I had just been paid and at the time I was being paid cash in hand, I had made roughly £400 including tips with it being the festive period.
As I went out straight from work I had placed the money that I had made in my bag which I assumed would be safe, as I was only heading out for one drink and I had intended to keep my bag on my shoulder and with me at all times.
The pub I went out to was Wetherspoons, I bought a drink but then bumped into some friends that I knew and stupidly left my drink on the table whilst I went to greet them.
When I came back to my drink after roughly 30 minutes I downed it and intended to then make my way home.
The next thing I know I was leaving the pub and heading to a nightclub which wasn’t on my original agenda for the night. It was probably 2 minutes away from the pub I was in. Once I had entered the nightclub I do not remember anything from that point onwards, I had not consumed more than that one drink I had had in the previous pub yet my memory and body just shut down.
The next thing I knew I woke up in a bush outside, lying on the floor with my bag beside me. My friends found me and took me home. I was in and out of consciousness and it was so scary. It was the worst experience of my life.
When I got home I could not stop being sick and I fell asleep on the floor of my shower. When I woke the next day I looked in my bag and saw that someone had stolen all of my money that I had earned from work and taken out with me into town.
I should have but I never went to the hospital, I was taken home by my friends and was then in the care of my mum after that. When I mustered up the strength the following day I returned to the place my friends had found me and naively prayed that my money had just fallen out of my bag and would still be there, during this I had to stop every couple minutes to be sick, it was horrible.
I never reported it because I feel the police never do anything about it. The drugs seemed to pass through my system pretty quickly, as far as I am aware, and within a few days, physically, I was back to feeling myself but my symptoms on the night were memory loss, brain fog, sickness, dizziness and fading in and out of consciousness.
Moving forward it has affected me, being a victim of spiking isn’t just an isolated event it alters your perspective on nights out and celebrations and it affects you for the rest of your life. I will never take a drink from someone else, I will never leave the house with money in my bag and I will never leave my drink unattended.
I guess in some aspects it’s taught me life lessons but I should never have had to go through what I did to find them out. It definitely knocked my confidence and it has made it very hard for me to trust people.
This experience left me feeling embarrassed, my parents were angry at me and were not understanding at all. It made me never want to go out again. My boyfriend at the time also didn’t understand and it caused major arguments between us. He told me I was irresponsible for allowing it to happen. I guess that’s another reason I didn’t go to the police because if the people closest to me didn’t understand then why would strangers.
My friend also had something similar happen to them and her experience wasn’t great with the police. They also couldn’t prove it so I felt that there was no point. There’s a real stigma around spiking I feel.
However, one thing I did not do is blame myself for other people’s actions. I should not have left my drink unattended but the person who committed the crime had the intention of doing it so I believe they would have found a way regardless. It was such a horrendously traumatic incident in the first place that blaming myself would not have gotten me anywhere, the anxiety of it all cleared up pretty quickly but I put that down to the sort of individual I am, I can imagine that for others this isn’t as easy.
What is being done to tackle it?
According to data sourced by Greater Manchester Police, over the past five years reports of spiking in Manchester have increased to what some would consider a scary amount. In 2019 there were a total of 128 recorded reports of spiking to Manchester’s police force and recent data that only extends as far as September 2024 shows that there have already been 463 offences this year.
Despite the government’s plans to tackle the rise of spiking the numbers seem to still be increasing. The Home Office set out plans in December 2023 to modernise the law making it clear that spiking – putting drugs or alcohol into another person’s drink or body without their consent – is a criminal offence.
A more detailed account of their plan consisted of more training for door staff to help prevent potential perpetrators from entering establishments, funding for testing kits alongside research into these kits to detect when a drink has been spiked and intensive operations by the National Police Chiefs’ council to target key weeks when spiking seems to be prevalent such as the Christmas period.
The King also made reference to the offence in his 2024 official opening of the new Parliament speech, once again introducing a new law to make spiking a specific criminal offence. This was put in place with the hopes that a new and specific offence would help police better respond to incidents.
Therefore, there are plans being put in place to make bars and establishments safer, now only time and new data will tell if these suggestions being put into action will work. On everyone’s behalf we hope that this world is one step at a time becoming a safer place for the community.
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