Exploring Experiences of Drink and Needle Spiking Incidents Among Global Drug Survey Respondents from 22 Countries

The GDS is an anonymous, online, cross sectional survey. The core GDS survey assessed socio-demographic characteristics, drug use history and drug-related consequences. GDS2022 was open between 9 November 2021 and 14 March 2022 and took between 15 and 60 min to complete (depending on drug use history). While the survey was translated into 11 languages, the section on drink spiking was only available in English, due to being added later than other sections, following media coverage of the topic. Recruitment into GDS is facilitated by mainstream and social media and harm reduction organisations; see Winstock et al. (2022) for further details on recruitment and other methods. It is a non-probability survey, and not intended to be representative of the populations within the included countries. Nonetheless, it has been demonstrated that GDS recruits people who use alcohol and cannabis who are similar in age and gender to people completing general household surveys in Australia, the United States and Switzerland (Barratt et al., 2017). The GDS received ethics approval from University College London (11671/001), which was registered at RMIT University (2020-23913-11758) and The University of Queensland (2017001452).

The sample for the current study is restricted to those who were presented the survey section on spiking (those who reported lifetime use of alcohol) and chose not to skip the section. At the start of the section, respondents were advised that the questions may ask them to reflect on a distressing experience, and advised to skip the section if that was the case (see supplementary materials for all questions). A total of 7607 respondents chose not to skip the section. We were interested in whether respondents had experienced spiking in the last 12 months, or more than 12 months ago. For those who reported drink spiking in the last 12 months, we asked about a range of experiences including what made them think they had been spiked and what happened. See Online Appendix A for all survey items.

We used descriptive statistics to examine the contextual details and occurrences of recent drink spiking experiences among respondents. The number and percentage of respondents who had never experienced spiking, ever experienced and experienced in the last 12 months were explored using percentages and Chi-Squared tests. We then performed three binary logistic regression models to explore variables associated with lifetime experiences of spiking compared to never, last 12 months experience compared to more than 12 months ago, and last 12 months compared to never. Age was rescaled in five year increments in the model, other predictors were gender, AUDIT score, lifetime and last 12 month illicit drug use, employment, student status, ethnicity, sexuality, and recent clubbing experience. Country was not treated as a random effect in the regression models due to low numbers of spiking incidents reported in some countries (e.g. N = 1 for lifetime or last 12 months experience of spiking), and because there is no current evidence to suggest country differences in this behaviour.

The final sample for this study consisted of 7607 respondents from 22 countries (Table 1) and the majority of respondents came from New Zealand (40.4%) and the UK (13.9%). The majority the sample (N = 5921, 77.8%) had never encountered an experience of drink spiking (Table 1). A further 1520 (20%) reported they had experienced drink spiking, but not in the last 12 months. One hundred and sixty-six respondents (2.2%) indicated they had experienced drink spiking in the last 12 months. The characteristics sample are reported in Table 2.

Cis women, trans women and people with another gender identity were more likely to report a spiking experience in the last 12 months than cis and trans men. Spiking in the last 12 months was also associated with being younger in age, and 40% of those reporting last 12 months drink spiking were in the increasing risk AUDIT category. Reporting last 12 months spiking was also associated with sexuality, recent clubbing experiences, recent and lifetime illicit substance use and being a student (see Table 2).

Contextual information about the drink spiking experience is shown in Table 3.

Logistic regression models were performed to explore whether demographic variables, alcohol consumption, other drug use and clubbing participation were associated with drink spiking experiences (see Table 4). Bootstrapped estimates for the confidence intervals in the regression models are shown in Supplemental Table 1.

Ever experiencing drink spiking (either in the last 12 months or longer ago) compared to never experiencing drink spiking was associated with gender, AUDIT score, last 12 month and lifetime illicit drug use, employment, student status, clubbing participation and sexual orientation.

Experiencing drink spiking in the last 12 months compared to experiencing it more than 12 months ago was associated with gender, age, AUDIT score, last 12 month drug use, student status, and clubbing participation.

In particular the models highlighted that cis women, trans women and those with other gender identities were more likely to report recent spiking experiences compared to cis men. Higher AUDIT scores, recent illicit substance use and recent clubbing experiences also appear to be associated with reporting drink spiking. Students compared to non –students are also more likely to report recent spiking experiences.

The current study contributes to our understanding of spiking incidents. Importantly, the findings underscore that suspected needle spiking incidents are a rare occurrence, and did not warrant the media storm that resulted in many countries around the world during 2021. Rather than doing a service to the general public, media stories create a sense that women, in particular, should be on high alert to the risk of drink or needle spiking in nightlife settings. While noting that women do, unfortunately, often need to be alert in nightlife settings, it seems from our findings the media focussed on a small risk, when it would perhaps be better to focus on the level of unwanted attention and sexual assault that occurs in public spaces all the time. Nuanced and balanced reports should focus on the relatively few cases of assault as a result of suspected spiking, whilst not ignoring that sexual assault is prevalent regardless, particularly in student populations (Camp et al., 2018). As a result, we suggest prevention efforts should focus on educating people about sexual consent and appropriate behaviour, rather than encouraging vigilance about leaving drinks unattended.

Returning to the dominant perspectives in the literature on drink spiking, our findings also highlighted some important gaps for further research. While it is laudable to explore risk factors for spiking, literature which considers a preventive approach lays the blame, and, therefore, the solution for the problem at the feet of the (predominantly female) victim, rather than the perpetrator of the assault. Our data suggest the need to move away from a solely female victim/male perpetrator narrative. Prevention efforts such offering people caps to put over their drinks perpetuate the perception of ubiquitous spiking (Bendau et al., 2023). Our data also show that most spiking incidents do not result in sexual assault, which supports researchers who critique the media’s role in perpetuating the dangers of spiking posed to women in nightlife settings. Notably, this should not downplay that sexual assault itself is a frequent occurrence. However, assault is more likely following voluntary, rather than involuntary, drug consumption (Anderson et al., 2017). Further understanding of the experiences of spiking in men and in trans and non-binary people is needed, as well as research into motives for perpetration.

What each perspective on drink spiking highlights, is that women’s existence within the night time economy is fraught with danger and uncertainty (Colyer & Weiss, 2017). Nicholls (2022) highlights the tension between ‘letting go’ and enjoying a night out and the need to be vigilant to sexual harassment and other forms of unwanted attention from men. She found that women perceived gender-based violence as unavoidable, and in some ways an accepted part of the night time economy, something to be laughed off, and something to have strategies in place to manage (Nicholls, 2022). A recent study of UK festival attendees found that sexual assault and harassment was normalised in the festival spaces (Bows et al., 2022). Spiking in this context is just one form of potential assault to be contended with, and its existence may act as a form of social control for women’s behaviour (Colyer & Weiss, 2017). It is not surprising from any of these perspectives that feelings of shame, guilt, and apprehension of reprisal, mean that the reporting frequency of spiking incidents remains low (Anderson et al., 2019; Hagemann et al., 2013; Stephenson et al., 2023). Further research should attempt to understand how to increase levels of reporting by victims of all types of assault, and to challenge the normalisation of harassment behaviours that lead to low levels of reporting. Such efforts need to include men, women and people of minority genders, and not solely focus on either ‘victims’ or ‘perpetrators’ in recognition that everyone has a role in safe, welcoming nightlife and festival settings.