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Spiking by injection: what are your rights?

Spiking occurs when someone puts drugs or alcohol into another person’s drink (or otherwise into another person’s body) without their knowledge and/ or consent. Spiking someone makes them more vulnerable to other misconduct, such as sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape.

This blog will look at:

Spiking

Spiking is the colloquial term for when a person is drugged without their knowledge or consent. Often this is done by adding drugs or alcohol to someone’s drink, but more recently reports have been made suggesting spiking by injection is a growing issue.

Spiking by injection involves injecting drugs into another person without their knowledge or consent. This can happen in crowded places, such as nightclubs, and many people who have reported being spiked by injection say they only realised they’d been spiked by injection the day after experiencing the symptoms of being spiked, after finding a small puncture wound on their body.

Prevalence of spiking

Campaigners say that spiking in the UK has reached ‘epidemic levels’; a survey carried out by the Alcohol Education Trust found that 15% of women surveyed had been spiked. Only 8% of those who had been spiked had reported it to the police or a doctor. An additional survey of 23,000 students found that 11% of them had been spiked.

Reports of spiking by injection have become more prevalent recently, with a significant increase in reports and warnings across social media from around October 2021. Many incidents of spiking, including spiking by injection, like other forms of gender-based violence, are under-reported so it is difficult to get a sense of just how prevalent this issue is. Concerns about spiking by injection have been raised, in particular, by students, student unions, and universities.

Responsibility for spiking

Efforts made to prevent spiking have primarily been focused on how people can avoid being spiked. Products such as nail polish that changes colour when dipped in a drink containing drugs and campaigns reminding people to not leave their drinks unattended may be useful but, ultimately, they shift responsibility for spiking away from perpetrators.

Perpetrators have been working around the protections that potential victims have been encouraged to use. As a result, new methods, such as spiking by injection, have been developed. Teaching people about spiking and encouraging them to look after their drink will not protect them from this new form of spiking and expecting people to protect themselves is not enough.

Educating victims about how to avoid being spiked also does nothing to address underlying cultural issues in the context of gender-based violence. The responsibility for spiking (and related offences, such as rape and sexual assault) must be placed on perpetrators, and more must be done in terms of prevention and education campaigns to shift the focus back to perpetrator’s behaviour.

The Criminal Law in Scotland

In Scotland, there is no specific criminal offence for 'drink spiking’ or spiking by injection. Depending on the specific facts and circumstances of the case, however, spiking may fall under the common law offence of 'drugging’ or may be a crime under section 11 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 - administering a substance for sexual purposes. If you are thinking of reporting spiking and/ or sexual harassment to the police, you can find more information on your rights in our guide on reporting sexual crimes.

How we can help

If you have experienced sexual harassment while at college or university, our solicitors can provide you with information and advice. To request an appointment, please call our helpline.

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