'Needle spiking' in UK nightclubs wtf?

[LDC]

So, this has been in the news recently; reports of women being injected/spiked with drugs in nightclubs. It seems to be someone who had this happen to them and then started an Instagram account to publicize it which then attracted people also reporting it had happened to them across the country.

What's going on? A new horrendous thing a very small number of men are doing? One arrest I can find, but nothing concrete yet and they haven't been charged.

I'm somewhere between skeptical (who is smuggling in syringes and drugs (and what drugs and where are they getting them) etc. and risking being caught doing that, finding someone they can inject and them staying still while you push the fluid in and them not noticing that, and then hoping you can take them somewhere?) and thinking this is (another) new low for humanity.

I'd be interested to see if this has more come out, or if it fizzles out as a news story and gets forgotten.

Police investigate reports of spiking by needle at Nottingham clubs

One man arrested after woman reports ‘scratching sensation’, as campaign group calls for boycotts

www.theguardian.com

Here's What We Know About Reports of Women Being 'Spiked With Needles' in UK Clubs

As police forces investigate reports of women being victims of "spiking injections" and the Home Secretary requests an urgent update, what is actually going on?

www.vice.com

Guardian and Vice, sorry!

 

[Edie]

I’m skeptical this is a thing

 

[Serge Forward]

Aye, there was this story in my local paper as well. It sounds utterly bizarre and I can't work out whether it's actually 'a thing' or the news media hyping up (pun not intended) a new 'craze'

 

[wemakeyousoundb]

Spiking no doubt it happens, but trying to inject someone?
I can imagine a one off incident but a "craze"? dubious on that.

 

[Johnny Vodka]

Enough women appearing in TV/newspaper interviews for it to be true IMO, but strange how it seems to be a thing all of a sudden.

 

[Serge Forward]

Spiking no doubt it happens, but trying to inject someone?
I can imagine a one off incident but a "craze"? dubious on that.

I meant media "craze" rather than a craze of spiking incidents.

 

[killer b]

It does have the feel of a moral panic about it, have to say. I think things are understandably quite febrile and tense atm, and there's inevitably going to be some shadow chasing as a result.

 

[gosub]

Saw the thing on the news last night, with the woman with a puncture mark on her hand.....Whatever it is, I don't think its actual syringes , coz I don't see how you wouldn't notice. But whatever it is, cunts in need of a jail term

 

[Chilli.s]

Me too (sceptic). Surely if caught doing it the sentence would be big? Giving an injection could be deadly, syringe as a weapon, assault with a deadly weapon? bladed weapon?

 

[Supine]

I’m skeptical this is a thing

That’s what I was thinking when i watched it on the news last night.

 

[ouirdeaux]

As the article points out, there are few drugs that could be administered by a passing pinprick. If this is an actual thing, we need some toxicology reports to work out exactly what is happening here.

 

[Spymaster]

I’m skeptical this is a thing

Same. If you're the kind of cunt that's going to spike someone's drink, dropping it into the victims glass is far less risky than packing works and trying to inject someone unexpectedly. Doesn't make sense.

Either way, any bastard who spikes someone should get 10 years for a first offence.

 

[8ball]

I can see how with someone who had had some booze, a very small diameter needle might not even be noticed, but it sounds utterly psychopathic, as well as being utterly undeniable if caught in the place and liable to lead to a massive immediate sentence (though spiking of any kind should be treated as GBH with intent imo).

edit: I looked at the Nottingham article - that club in Nottingham, under it's old name, was the most depressing club I ever went into exactly due to an apparent culture of spiking. I'd never even noticed women covering their drinks before so that nothing could be slipped into it, but here it was all of them. I was often guarding the drinks for the women in the group I was with when they went to the loo. Tbh, if this was to happen anywhere, it would be there.

 

[Serene]

Is it Gove?

 

[Fez909]

One in Leeds, too: Leeds "spiking by injection" case investigated as Home Office urgently calls for police review

 

[Johnny Vodka]

I can see how with someone who had had some booze, a very small diameter needle might not even be noticed, but it sounds utterly psychopathic, as well as being utterly undeniable if caught in the place and liable to lead to a massive immediate sentence (though spiking of any kind should be treated as GBH with intent imo).

When I had my first covid vax, I couldn't tell when the needle went in. (Second was different.). It's not inconceivable that someone who is maybe slightly drunk and being jostled in a crowd could be pricked with a needle and not realise IMO.

 

[bimble]

Is it possibly one lunatic ? Like the one who went round injecting food in supermarkets with blood this summer but worse.

 

[ouirdeaux]

It's pretty easy to inject food in supermarkets, though. You are injecting an object that isn't likely to move, notice what you are doing or make a noise. Sooner or later, and preferably sooner, someone will notice or CCTV will pick it up, but even a bumbler should be able to manage it once or twice. This is on a different level.

 

[Artaxerxes]

I suspect this is just some pricks with needles rather than actual drugs but it’s still abhorrent and I hope the fuckers doing it get their own needles in the eyes

 

[LDC]

When I had my first covid vax, I couldn't tell when the needle went in. (Second was different.). It's not inconceivable that someone who is maybe slightly drunk and being jostled in a crowd could be pricked with a needle and not realise IMO.

Not just pricked by a needle though, it's being given an injection of drugs. The person would be pretty nifty to hide a syringe in their hand or sleeve, but then get it out unnoticed by anyone near them, inject the person unnoticed as they stand totally still for a good 15 seconds-ish, and then move away, again totally unnoticed. Just sounds almost totally implausible to me. But also accept people can and do bonkers seemingly impossible things sometimes....

 

[Supine]

Is it Gove?

He’d be spiking the men’s drinks

 

[8ball]

Is it possibly one lunatic ? Like the one who went round injecting food in supermarkets with blood this summer but worse.

Possibly a small group who have found each other on some extreme misogynistic puddle on the edge of the internet and are trying things out because the drinks are being guarded.
A couple of the reports sound like they were trying something intramuscular, which would be really high risk and I can't see anyone not noticing that.

 

[bimble]

Not just pricked by a needle though, it's being given an injection of drugs. The person would be pretty nifty to hide a syringe in their hand or sleeve, but then get it out unnoticed by anyone near them, inject the person unnoticed as they stand totally still for a good 15 seconds-ish, and then move away, again totally unnoticed. Just sounds almost totally implausible to me. But also accept people can and do bonkers seemingly impossible things sometimes....

Why so long? I don’t know but epipens are 3 seconds or so ?
I also don’t know what to make of the story.

 

[ouirdeaux]

If someone administers an epipen to you, and you don't actually notice, I respectfully submit that it is likely that you have already ingested an unwise amount of alcohol or other substances. Or, possibly, you're dead.

 

[killer b]

He’d be spiking the men’s drinks

Fairly sure the 'gove is gay' thing isn't true, and has a stench of homophobia about it. I'd steer clear of it tbh

 

[8ball]

Why so long? I don’t know but epipens are 3 seconds or so ?

True, though epipens wouldn't contain the volume required for any of the plausible drug candidates.
When self-injecting clexane, that took about a second or so, but volume wasn't more than 1ml and was just subcutaneous.

Was a bit unpleasant in the mornings, but barely noticeable for the evening shot after a little booze (aside from the fact that it's pretty impossible not to notice that you're injecting yourself).

 

[Edie]

Not just pricked by a needle though, it's being given an injection of drugs. The person would be pretty nifty to hide a syringe in their hand or sleeve, but then get it out unnoticed by anyone near them, inject the person unnoticed as they stand totally still for a good 15 seconds-ish, and then move away, again totally unnoticed. Just sounds almost totally implausible to me. But also accept people can and do bonkers seemingly impossible things sometimes....

Medically it’s verging on impossible surely. Firstly, what drug? Would have to be some kind of anaesthetic agent? but IM not IV? How long would it take to deliver it, multiple seconds not instantly. Without being felt? It doesn’t seem likely to have happened once let alone multiple times.

Like killer b says it’s a panic. Shame it’s distracting from the real issue which is male power, sexual harassment and assault.

 

[8ball]

Medically it’s verging on impossible surely. Firstly, what drug? Would have to be some kind of anaesthetic agent? but IM not IV? How long would it take to deliver it, multiple seconds not instantly. Without being felt? It doesn’t seem likely to have happened once let alone multiple times.

Like killer b says it’s a panic. Shame it’s distracting from the real issue which is male power, sexual harassment and assault.

I hope so. Most likely to be a benzo, ket, haloperidol or an amnestic like midazolam if it's really happening, though those are pretty significant volumes to inject. Like you say, a good few seconds to inject and really hard to do without someone noticing.

 

[Johnny Vodka]

Medically it’s verging on impossible surely. Firstly, what drug? Would have to be some kind of anaesthetic agent? but IM not IV? How long would it take to deliver it, multiple seconds not instantly. Without being felt? It doesn’t seem likely to have happened once let alone multiple times.

Has anyone been "successful" with it though? Could be men trying it out without fully understanding the technicalities? Also, surely some drugs are active at very small doses?

 

[LDC]

Why so long? I don’t know but epipens are 3 seconds or so ?
I also don’t know what to make of the story.

If you add in the time from them being still for a second or so (I mean when is anyone that still ever unless asleep?), the person thinking right this is the moment to do it, then getting the syringe out, then injecting them, and then withdrawing it, it's a bit of time, definitely more than a few seconds.