Is Drink Spiking an Urban Myth or big catch all excuse?

Arcsin

locum-motion wrote: »

Yes. Well done, you can read.

(My emphasis added)

Not with roofies, no.



Correct.

And your point is?

Just that that's what most of the posts on this thread were saying, it doesn't really happen here and I'm pretty sure everyone know that Roofies isn't the real name.

Don't worry if you don't recognise humour, it doesn't come in pill form.

Now, be honest, you just wanted to tell us you were a pharmacist didnt you?

locum-motion

wonderfulname wrote: »

I'll agree that of all the things you can slip in a drink that's the least likely and most conspicuous (a couple of extra shots being not only easy, but acceptable in our society, to a degree) but never say never, I stick it in the same catagory as 'if you take class A drugs you'll tear your own eyes out thinking they're rats', statistically ignorable media hype, but an extreme example of why you shouldn't take dodgy examples of mind altering substances off strange people.

It is true that Sean Connery once said he'd "never" play James Bond again, and when he did, they called the movie "Never Say Never Again", so therefore I'll retract the word "never" from my posts and say that it's "so unlikely as to be virtually never."

There. Is that better?

locum-motion

Arcsin wrote: »

...Don't worry if you don't recognise humour...

Oh, I recognise humour all right, but there has to be an appreciable amount of it present first!

wonderfulname

locum-motion wrote: »

It is true that Sean Connery once said he'd "never" play James Bond again, and when he did, they called the movie "Never Say Never Again", so therefore I'll retract the word "never" from my posts and say that it's "so unlikely as to be virtually never."

There. Is that better?

much although I do also believe you underestimate the black market drugs trade...

Arcsin

locum-motion wrote: »

Oh, I recognise humour all right, but there has to be an appreciable amount of it present first!

Ahh don't get upset petal, I was impressed, really I was.

I wont be able to sleep tonight i'll be worried that you're upset. Maybe you could me get some of that Rohypnol. ;-)

gctest50

Seaneh wrote: »

I haven't read any of this thread and I couldn't be arsed to be honest but I am going to say this.

I have a few good friends who are doctors. One particular friend has, since finishing her registration year, worked almost exclusively in A&E and M.A.U. Departments.

Every week for the last 3/4 years my friend and her colleagues are presented with a handful of girls, usually aged between 17-25, but sometimes older, who's friends claim that their drink was spiked. The girls are usually awake but totally off their heads, uncommunicative and nonresponsive. Their friends tell the people admitting the girl stuff like "she was grand and then all of a sudden went like this".
The medical staff, as they should, treat these cases very seriously, the girls are taken for a full examination, have blood works done ASAP and urine samples taken when possible. They are then treated for the symptoms and checked on regularly to make sure they are doing well. Their friends are sent home and the doctors and nurses in the A&E dept look after these young women.

Not once in the several years my friend had been practicing in Ireland has anything besides excessive alcohol and reactiona drugs like weed and occasionally harder stuff like cocaine shown up in anyone's blood works. No sedatives, no sleepers, no "roofies", nada.

The girls are usually just so absolutely off their faces, rat arsed drunk that they cannot function.

Of course the wake up the next day feeling like they are going to die because they have mild alcohol poisoning and go back to their friends and continue to believe they were "spiked", but the reality is, that in the vast majority of these cases, the girls involved drank too much and made a tit out of themselves.


Does date rape happen in Ireland, yes, definitely, and that's disgusting, but more often than not, it's not people being "roofied".
I'd say the most common drug used is alcohol.
Scumbags taking advantage of passed out drunk girls they brought home with them and raping them while they are near comatosed.

Bit of an example of what can go wrong :

I was getting a real early start one morning - got some food
Collapsed really suddenly about 20 mins later
Off to A&E
Was trying think of any reason for this - saw a glucometer, asked the HCP if it could possible be diabetes - pls test my blood
Test was done, they went "ah it's a just a bit high because you had something to eat, you're grand"
Found out a few weeks later it was > 27 at the time
Have my medical records.

Was fine the day before - was giving a friend a hand so up on scaffolding etc

locum-motion

Arcsin wrote: »

Ahh don't get upset petal, I was impressed, really I was.

I wont be able to sleep tonight i'll be worried that you're upset. Maybe you could me get some of that Rohypnol. ;-)

There you go; I gave you a special 'Thanks' to show that I'm not upset. You can sleep soundly.

Potential-Monke

I reckon i was spiked 3 times.

First time, i have no idea what it was. Only had a couple of beers, sitting against the pool table, and next thing i couldn't move my legs. I was mentally fine, just couldn't move my legs. So i just stayed there, sipping my pint. Said it to a few of the lads i was with, who just laughed and tried to tip me over. Half hour later, grand again. It was weird. Could have be 2 dead legs though...

Second time, i'm pretty certain i was spiked. Had a few pints again, and all of a sudden it's 6 hours later and a friend is helping me get in my front door. Saw some pictures, and definitely stuff i wouldn't do when hammered.

Third time i spiked myself, for shits and giggles. I giggled. Then shit.

On the whole Rohypnol thing, my mature student brother was freaking out about his exams, and couldn't sleep. The doctor gave him 30 Rohypnol. Said if he didn't get up the stairs and into bed within 2 minutes of taking them, he was falling asleep wherever he was!

wonderfulname

Potential-Monke wrote: »

I reckon i was spiked 3 times.

First time, i have no idea what it was. Only had a couple of beers, sitting against the pool table, and next thing i couldn't move my legs. I was mentally fine, just couldn't move my legs. So i just stayed there, sipping my pint. Said it to a few of the lads i was with, who just laughed and tried to tip me over. Half hour later, grand again. It was weird. Could have be 2 dead legs though...

Second time, i'm pretty certain i was spiked. Had a few pints again, and all of a sudden it's 6 hours later and a friend is helping me get in my front door. Saw some pictures, and definitely stuff i wouldn't do when hammered.

Third time i spiked myself, for shits and giggles. I giggled. Then shit.

On the whole Rohypnol thing, my mature student brother was freaking out about his exams, and couldn't sleep. The doctor gave him 30 Rohypnol. Said if he didn't get up the stairs and into bed within 2 minutes of taking them, he was falling asleep wherever he was!

Yeah your first two examples sound like how alcohol can affect you differently in different situations, third one reminds me of one of the situations I alluded to earlier, where a friend had one pint and one mystery shot before retiring to a toilet cubicle to excrete everything possible, everywhere possible, then left myself and a bouncer to drag her out comatose to a family members car, so I'm curious as to what you took...

Seaneh

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Third time i spiked myself

Does not compute.

Potential-Monke

Seaneh wrote: »

Does not compute.

I basically took a yoke before my intended time of taking it

wonderfulname wrote: »

Yeah your first two examples sound like how alcohol can affect you differently in different situations, third one reminds me of one of the situations I alluded to earlier, where a friend had one pint and one mystery shot before retiring to a toilet cubicle to excrete everything possible, everywhere possible, then left myself and a bouncer to drag her out comatose to a family members car, so I'm curious as to what you took...

Second one could have been caused by drink, but i honestly don't think it was. First one was weird that it only effected my legs for half an hour, and was grand again. Third - took a yoke, giggled and the poo'd, but not to the level of your mate. I just went to the jacks, and had an epic poo!

jill_valentine

I used to go out in a small town that had pretty much just the one, incredibly grim hotel which was basically the only drinking hole in town. Anyway, you used to hear stories all the time of people claiming to have been spiked, and everybody would just roll their eyes. The usual young ones and young bucks who couldn't hold their booze making excuses about how their fortieth Jager must have been spiked, you know yourself.

Anyway, a while back one of the local girls was out there with friends. She started getting a bit stumbly, clearly twisted, so one of the lads worked in the hotel offered to put her up in one of the rooms. He was very helpfully leading her up there when bystanders who knew her intervened - our helpful young friend hadn't realised that the girl in question doesn't drink at all, and although she had indeed been walking around with a glass in her hand, it was just coke. She hadn't touched a drop of alcohol in years.

The hotel has since closed - that wasn't even the dodgiest thing going on there, by all accounts - but what became of the subsequent Garda investigation, I don't know. How many times they'd gotten away with God only knows what before then, I don't think we'll ever know.

Long story short... whatever it is, it's not a complete myth.

MadsL

MadsL wrote: »

I was spiked by the massive wanker of a Bar Manager where I worked. I drank four pints and went home for an early night, a normal session for me at that time would have been at least eight pints plus shots.

I started to feel ill as soon as I got to the metro and then the next thing I remember was waking up four hours later covered in vomit with paramedics standing over me and then being put into an ambulance, I blacked out again only to come around strapped down to a table being given an injection.

I woke up the next morning in a ward. The doctor asked me what I had been drinking the night before, when I told him just four beers, he shook his head and told me that this was impossible as I had been admitted with acute alcohol poisoning.

The cnut of a bar manager then took the piss the next day, I eventually found out he had deep sixed the pints with vodka - to this day I regret not going to the police and having the fucktard deported (as I was also illegally working this wasn't an option.

There is NOTHING funny about spiking someone - you might be responsible for someone's death.

As to those who doubt that people can be spiked, go crack a beer and pour it into two glasses, have someone pour a vodka into one, now try to identify the spiked beer blindfolded.

How much was in each one to leave you in that state? Must've been some pretty flat pints.


As for spiking, I've yet to see someone get in a state or describe a state that couldn't be down to alcohol. Sometimes I'll have 30 cans without eating and have a complete picture of the night the next day, other times I'll have 3 and be slurring. That's just talking about sitting in a house drinking, generally drink hits far harder when I'm in a pub or at a party. Probably the best one is "I don't remember anything after leaving the club" being a surprise to people. Nothing makes drink more effective than the air hitting ya after 3 hours of drinking in the dark :pac:

Rabies

Duncan Delightful Crab wrote: »

In my experience its myth.

I hear it all the time.. Mostly its either a friend throwing in a few extra shots and thinking they're being clever or an over indulgence on behalf of the person (usually a young female).

Same goes for phones and wallets being nicked "where did you have it?'' ~ "In the toilet, at the bar, left it on the table" etc..

People just can not take responsibility for their own actions.

Agree.
The majority of the alleged spiking is over indulgence of alcohol. I've taken customers to A&E before and called ambulances for apparent drink spiking. Turns out it was nearly always the booze. Friends adding an extra shot. Too many shots in the night. Young girls not eating or drinking fluids all day, it doesn't help matters.
In 6-7yrs I've had one or two real spiking cases that I know of. Word gets around very fast if a customer thinks they were spiked. You hear it the next day from other people, family members, police, general gossip etc. With a bit of hindsight it usually comes down to alcohol.

MadsL

Deleted User wrote: »

How much was in each one to leave you in that state? Must've been some pretty flat pints.


As for spiking, I've yet to see someone get in a state or describe a state that couldn't be down to alcohol. Sometimes I'll have 30 cans without eating and have a complete picture of the night the next day, other times I'll have 3 and be slurring. That's just talking about sitting in a house drinking, generally drink hits far harder when I'm in a pub or at a party. Probably the best one is "I don't remember anything after leaving the club" being a surprise to people. Nothing makes drink more effective than the air hitting ya after 3 hours of drinking in the dark :pac:

So on the one hand you doubt that it is possible to get in that state, yet then go on to describe how different amounts of alcohol affect you depending on the night.

Genius.

MadsL

MadsL wrote: »

So on the one hand you doubt that it is possible to get in that state, yet then go on to describe how different amounts of alcohol affect you depending on the night.

Genius.

I've never been covered in sick with paramedics standing over me whether I had 3 or 30 drinks, it's a slightly different thing.

Rabies

I do believe that the incidents of drink spiking are a lot lower than people think.

Real Life

Im sure it definitely happens. Especially date rape drugs. Not so sure when people say they were spiked with E. I dont know why anyone would spike someone with an E. I know if i OD'd on E and lived to tell the tale id be saying i was spiked even if i wasnt. Maybe thats what happens.

Madam_X

Seaneh wrote: »

I've had friends put vodka in beer and cider and try and fool me, I almost puked each time. If you can't taste a 25-30ml shot of vodka in a glass of beer you have some serious problems with your taste buds...

Especially enough vodka to cause that degree of poisoning.

empacher

Potential-Monke wrote: »

just went to the jacks, and had an epic poo!

It's called a ''come up ****'' a really common occurrence, nothing like that feeling of dropping a number 2, and then going Wow tonights going to be a good one!


Had somebody put a bucket load of ketamine in my drink before at a party , que me not being able to move, having a outer body/ near death experience. Basically being trapped in my own mind for an hour. Not that much fun, but it was an experience.

smash

Of course it happens. I know of 2 people it happened to. One got spiked with e and it turned out that it was her friend who did it for a laugh. Another girl doesn't drink and ended up in bits getting her stomach pumped.

Frank Black

My sister works in the State Lab in Celbridge.
They routinely get sent samples to test in cases where there has been an allegation of someone's drink being spiked.
They've never gotten a single positive test result for rohypnol or other so-called date-rape drugs.

smash

Frank Black wrote: »

My sister works in the State Lab in Celbridge.
They routinely get sent samples to test in cases where there has been an allegation of someone's drink being spiked.
They've never gotten a single positive test result for rohypnol or other so-called date-rape drugs.

Is that all they test for?

Frank Black

smash wrote: »

Is that all they test for?

Being honest, I don't know the specifics of the tests they run - I'm just posting what she told me. I think the samples get sent there for testing by the DPP, so presumably an allegation has been made that someone has spiked the sample with a date-rape agent.

Pace2008

smash wrote: »

Is that all they test for?

It's not like they're using some home piss-test kit that will change colour if you've smoked weed or taken a few pills. A toxicology lab assay would recognise all recreational and purported date rape drugs. It would have to be some obscure novelty chemical to go under the radar.

Pumpkinseeds

I had my drink spiked with LSD back in the 90's. Horrible experience. I take medication for epilepsy and was freaked out that there'd be a bad reaction. There was a large group of us at the table so it had to be someone that I knew that did it.

zl1whqvjs75cdy

Re; The state lab thing. Its not just one test for one drug. They test the sample and get a read out. The read out is compared to a "normal" non spiked sample and difference's identified. These difference's can then be further examined to see if they are date rape drugs etc. So they test for all drugs with one test. It would have to be something obscure to escape notice as I am sure the technician's know what rohypnol looks like on the read out.

FTA69

I worked as a doorman and had to deal with umpteen cases of "drink spiking" in clubs; my first thought was always "which one of the 11 vodkas did they put the drugs in?"

The fact is that the same amount of alcohol can affect the same person in an entirely different way at any given time. Some can drink 7 pints and be perfectly coherent while other times the same amount is enough to have them rat arsed. Drinking culture in Ireland has also changed amongst young people. Many will now start drinking at home and consume a large amount of alcohol in a short space of time before heading to a club, in women's cases they are often skulling white wine or else pouring large home-measured shots of spirits and downing a lot more than they would get sold in a pub. Often then it's straight onto double spirits when they arrive at the venue, is it any wonder how they're wrecked an hour after hitting the club?

The amount of times I've heard from a girl's friends: "honest to God, she was spiked, she didn't have much at home..."

I guarantee if they recapped the amount she drank and how quick she drank it, it would add up to a considerable session. As Makikomi said earlier, some people just can't accept responsibility for the fact they had no respect for booze and made an eejit of themselves as a result. It's far easier to blame the bouncers for failing to catch these constructed boogeymen.

The only time I've ever seen spiking was amongst groups of "friends" who slip people doubles instead of singles or else throw Viagra or MDMA into their buddy's pint. The strange man slipping Rohypnol in a randomer's drink is a load of bullsh*t.

FTA69

Mr Whirly wrote: »

I used to think it was a myth but very recently two girls I know went from sober to passed out in the space of a couple of hours in a popular late bar in Dublin. Same thing happened in the same place to mates before. Bouncers were having none of it when asked and the guards said it has been happening more frequently when they had to get involved.

The bouncers who are posting in this thread hate the idea of this happening frequently on their watch because it shows they are incompetent.

The only people who give less of a sh*t about this sort of thing than bouncers are the cops. If the police were so convinced that she was the victim of an illegal substance being put in her drink I assume they brought her to the hospital and she then had a toxology test done?

I Heart Internet

Never seen it in person but I read that Ben Fogle's drink was spiked and he went out of his mind..........

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9882037/Ben-Fogle-my-terror-after-psychotic-drink-spiking-episode.html

Scary business I'd say.

Hoop66

I was spiked once. My pal put some MDMA into my cup of tea. He told me about it straight after I finished the tea.

Great day.

suicide_circus

Hoop66 wrote: »

I was spiked once. My pal put some MDMA into my cup of tea. He told me about it straight after I finished the tea.

Great day.

you didnt taste mdma in tea?

Koptain Liverpool

Excedion wrote: »

Friend was nearly spiked by a lad offering him to down a pint for a fiver. He went to do it and there was an LSD stamp at the bottom of the glass. Needless to say that offer was quickly rejected.

Sounds like bollocks to me. LSD is hard enough to come by and people who have aren't going to go around trying to spike people's drinks with it.

And will LSD even work if you put it in a pint???

Hoop66

suicide_circus wrote: »

you didnt taste mdma in tea?

No. Big mug of strong sweet tea.

So if you don't like the taste, that's the way to go.

Koptain Liverpool

Mr Whirly wrote: »

I used to think it was a myth but very recently two girls I know went from sober to passed out in the space of a couple of hours in a popular late bar in Dublin.

Most drugs don't make you pass out just to let you know.
The exact opposite in fact.

suicide_circus

Koptain Liverpool wrote: »

Sounds like bollocks to me. LSD is hard enough to come by and people who have aren't going to go around trying to spike people's drinks with it.

Thats the thing. Drugs are generally expensive. If i have drugs Im gonna 'spike' myself, not gIve them to someone else for the laugh. Except for viagra, now thats a funny spike.

FTA69

Acid is dissolvable in liquid as far as I know. It's a liquid itself usually infused onto blotting paper or a sugar cube or something along those lines. Also acid is quite common these days and is only €10 or less for a tab.

suicide_circus

Hoop66 wrote: »

No. Big mug of strong sweet tea.

So if you don't like the taste, that's the way to go.

interesting but sure i take a certain pleasure from the acrid bitter taste

Gyalist

As part of a Business Watch scheme in the South City Centre of Dublin we meet occasionally with the senior gardai in charge of the district. At a previous meeting two publicans raised the issue of drinks being reportedly spiked on their premises. The response from the garda was that in all their years in the district, there had never been a positive test for the presence of any suspect drug from anyone who claimed that their drink had been spiked.

jaffacakesyum

Pretty stupid hearing people on here say "nope, absolutely doesn't happen" "no it's just a myth" "no, just stupid drunk girls"

Ehh, it does happen. But I would agree strongly with the pharmacist poster and the post about friends working in the medical field.

I have friends working as doctors and they see a lot of alcohol abuse and no, it's not just "stupid drunk girls" :rolleyes: But on the rare occasion they do find other substances in their blood stream apart from alcohol or weed to suggest drink spiking. But it is rare.

I know of one girl who got her drink spiked at 15. She wasn't drinking alcohol at the time and she was sexually assaulted afterwards. So it does happen. It's not a 'myth', it's just relatively rare.

Pumpkinseeds

Koptain Liverpool wrote: »

Sounds like bollocks to me. LSD is hard enough to come by and people who have aren't going to go around trying to spike people's drinks with it.

And will LSD even work if you put it in a pint???

It was very easy to come by in the 90's. I don't know about how it works in alcohol but I was drinking coke and it works just fine in that I can tell you.

Stone Deaf 4evr

The genuine cases are a lot rarer than the hype would have you believe.
There are people out there with sinister intentions, but I dont believe there are Johnny appleseed type figures roaming the country depositing pills in drinks for the craic either.

Hoop66

More's the pity

Seachmall

Koptain Liverpool wrote: »

Sounds like bollocks to me. LSD is hard enough to come by

It's not that hard, still widely available.

And will LSD even work if you put it in a pint???

It will yeah.

Koptain Liverpool

jaffacakesyum wrote: »

Pretty stupid hearing people on here say "nope, absolutely doesn't happen" "no it's just a myth" "no, just stupid drunk girls"
I know of one girl who got her drink spiked at 15. She wasn't drinking alcohol at the time and she was sexually assaulted afterwards. So it does happen. It's not a 'myth', it's just relatively rare.

But it is mostly (99% of the time) stupid people who have drunk too much so it's time to change the idea that pubs are full of guys spiking drinks at the weekend.

cheesefiend

I'm really not sure how common it is but from my own experience I wouldn't say it never happens. One night myself and a few friends were in a club in Dublin, we were dancing and one of the girls had left her drink on the ledge of the dance floor. We were right beside it so I don't think she thought there was much danger. Then another friend just starts shouting at a guy who was standing over the ledge, he ran away and she grabbed the drink and and got rid of it. She had seen him drop something in it.

Another friend was out and was drinking but not very much. Started feeling sick and went to the bathroom where she collapsed. She was paralysed but was aware of what was going on. The drink she had been holding had dropped and the glass smashed around her. She was there until staff at the end of the night had to break into her, paramedics were called and she was hospitalised. I can't remember what she was spiked with as its years ago now.

I'm not saying it happens all the time but surely it happens occasionally.

jaffacakesyum

Koptain Liverpool wrote: »

But it is mostly (99% of the time) stupid people who have drunk too much so it's time to change the idea that pubs are full of guys spiking drinks at the weekend.

I would agree it's mostly people who have drunk too much. 99%? I don't know, you don't know either. We've no statistics on it. I would say it's the vast majority who are just drunk. I've thanked posts on this thread who have expressed this - that it's the majority but that drug spiking still does happen.

It's the idiot posts about how it's a 'myth' and it 'absolutely doesn't happen' and it's just 'stupid drunk girls who can't handle their drink' that I take issue with.

Like I said, the vast majority of the time it's probably just people drink too much. Other times, people have their drinks spiked with drink for the laugh by friends (i.e. extra spirits or shots in pints), and then the minority of the time it's spiking with drugs.

Medusa22

I haven't heard too many people say that their drink has been spiked, probably only a handful. I think that actual spiking is generally not a common occurrence. I have gotten absolutely pissed plenty of times when I was younger and often passed out and I've done some very stupid things but it never occurred to me to say that I had been spiked as an excuse, well it was usually incredibly obvious that I drank far too much anyway.

jaffacakesyum

Medusa22 wrote: »

I haven't heard too many people say that their drink has been spiked, probably only a handful. I think that actual spiking is generally not a common occurrence. I have gotten absolutely pissed plenty of times when I was younger and often passed out and I've done some very stupid things but it never occurred to me to say that I had been spiked as an excuse, well it was usually incredibly obvious that I drank far too much anyway.

Yeah same...I actually haven't heard any of my friends say they were spiked as an excuse. The only time I knew someone who was spiked was the girl I talked about earlier.

Freddy Smelly

i got spiked once with rohypnol in sligo back in 1998

was very sick for a few days