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2006-1120
- Spiked (UK)- There are weird men out there
by Suzy Dean
According to campaign
groups like Women Against Rape, more young women, and increasingly men, are waking
up after a blurred night of passion and telling themselves their drink must
have been spiked. Sharon Hawkins from West Cumbria Rape Crisis Centre said
the number of people contacting them about ‘drug rape’ had increased
significantly over the past few years.
After years of campaigning against drug-rape, and the drugs allegedly
associated with it, it now appears that the problem is not grounded in
reality. A new study from the Association of Chief Police Officers into the
role of drugs in rape found that between November 2004 and October 2005 only
two women, out of 120 alleged drug-rape cases, had actually been spiked with
a date-rape drug. Most had just been drunk.
2006-1120
- Spiked (UK) - Drink-spiking: a morality tale for our times
by Josie Appleton.
Drink-spiking
awareness campaigns have become an established part of the pre-Christmas
period. It’s normally around early December that police forces, student
unions and campaign organisations start to warn revellers about the poisons
that others could be slipping into their festive drinks.
This year, a study by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) tried
to get in first – with evidence that drink-spiking is largely a myth.
Researchers examined 120 cases of alleged drug-assisted assault, and found
not a single trace of the notorious ‘date-rape’ drug Rohypnol. They found
Gamma Hydroxybutyrate (GHB), the other drug often mentioned, in only two
cases. .....
2005-1208
- Spiked (UK) - Drink-spiking scare: shots of anxiety
by Josie Appleton.
This is a campaign
looking for an argument. When evidence about date-rape drugs looks shaky,
campaigners switch focus to drink spiking with...alcohol. In the More
magazine’s survey, the figure of 23 per cent figure included women who had
their drink spiked with strong spirits. Indeed, alcohol spiking was the focus
of the Newcastle drink-spiking campaign. By these accounts, somebody slipping
an extra shot into your drink - or just buying you more drink than you asked
for - is ‘drink spiking’.......
There’s no evidence for a mass of predatory drug-wielders, on the lookout for
unsuspecting victims. We do need to keep our wits about us this Christmas -
not guarding our drinks, but guarding ourselves from drink-spiking campaigns.
2003-0721
- ABC (Australia) - Drink spiking - a reality or urban myth?
Over the years,
much has been made of the practice of spiking drinks - whether with extra,
unsuspected alcohol, or with drugs, including 'date rape' drug, Rohypnol.
With several awareness campaigns being run over the years, and another about
to start, Robert Hanson - a chemist and toxicologist with the Forensic Science
Laboratory at the Chemistry Centre in Perth - says the idea of drug-spiked
drinks is more urban myth than reality.......
"We've basically declared it [drug spiking] an urban myth,"
Mr Hanson says. "We believe it's just an excuse to hide abhorrent behaviour
or inexperienced drinking, as a way of explaining, or trying to explain away,
what young people were doing when they shouldn't be."
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