As a recent uni graduate and a young person who enjoys a night out, I am acutely aware of the dangers of spiking. In the picture above, you can see how I hold bottles/glasses/any drink I happen to have. While this picture was taken in a club, I cover the top of the whatever drink wherever I am and whoever I’m with automatically, and I know that I am not alone in this. It is so sad that this is our automatic – that we are so aware of the dangers of spiking and what may happen after that we instinctively try to prevent it before it can occur. Should we stop doing this? Definitely not – it is helping to keep us safe. But that does not make it okay.
I view self-defence in general in a similar light. Should we need to learn it? No. But we do in order to feel and be safer on the street due to the actions of others. And it is not enough to just learn to fight someone off, we need to learn how to avoid confrontations, and try to learn to safely talk someone down from violence if we can when the necessity strikes. All of this to try to keep ourselves safe. And all of that responsibility put on the target, usually though not always a woman. But we are not the problem. Those who attack us or try to spike us are.
Recently there has been a rise of spiking by injection – and this is something that we can’t protect against by covering our drinks. This also has other dangers, such as those related to unclean needles. Those who wish to take advantage of us have seen us become more vigilant over our drinks so have found a new way to harm us. Some clubs are trying to prevent this by checking people on the doors, but this is not every club nor on every occasion. Towards the end of last year there were many boycotts of clubs, especially by university students, due to these increased incidents of spiking by injection, calling for more to be done by those with the power to make change.
Viewing statistics, it is possible to see just how much of a problem spiking is. According to YouGov research published in November 2021 one in nine women have been spiked through their drinks, with a third of women knowing someone who has been spiked (https://yougov.co.uk/topics/lifestyle/articles-reports/2021/11/18/one-nine-women-have-been-drink-spiked). A Guardian article from this month also comments upon how the issue has reached ‘epidemic levels’ with the home affairs select committee finding ‘up to 15% of women and 7% of men have been spiked with alcohol or drugs’ (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jan/12/drink-spiking-uk-campaigners-mps-inquiry). There are numerous other articles which can be found online, many published in November last year, discussing how spiking is increasing, especially through injection, demonstrating the prevalence of this problem.
This increase and new way of spiking demonstrates that we are not able to prevent these incidents through our actions alone (such as covering our drinks and trying to remain aware of the people around us – especially in crowded clubs), nor should we be expected to. As with all the self-defence that TSP can teach you, our actions can only go so far. We can work to make ourselves safer and more confident but at the end of the day, it is not your fault, nor responsibility, if you are subject to an unprovoked attack. Can self-defence help and is it important to learn and understand the best ways to stay safe? Yes. But that is like the sticking plaster. What is needed is more change, both through re-education and dealing with incidents more seriously and increasing convictions where possible. Spiking is only one example of crimes which need to be taken more seriously if we want to make a safer and more enjoyable society.
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