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Drink spiking update

New report

A report on the National Project on Drink Spiking: Investigating the nature and extent of drink spiking in Australia was recently released.  The report, prepared by the Australian Institute of Criminology and published by the Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy, is based on evidence obtained from victims of drink spiking via police, the Centre Against Sexual Assault (CASA) and a national Drink Spiking Hotline. 

 

Some of the key findings and issues included:

 

Prevalence It was roughly estimated that over the 12-month period 1 July 2003 to 30 June 2004 , there were 3000–4000 suspected incidents of drink spiking in Australia.

 

Reasons for drink spiking The majority of drink spiking incidents reported have no associated criminal victimisation. This indicates that a common motivation for drink spiking may be “prank spiking”.

 

Where does it occur? Two-thirds of suspected drink spiking incidents occurred in licensed premises.

 

What is used to spike drinks?  Predominantly alcohol, but it is not clear as to whether this is because:

  • Alcohol is commonly used to spike drinks
  • Other drugs are already metabolised by the body by the time of testing, so that only alcohol remains
  • People are not aware of how much alcohol they are consuming.

 

Reporting of drink spiking incidents   The estimated rate of reporting suspected incidents to police of drink spiking sexual assaults was less than 15 per cent and for drink spiking non-sexual assaults between 20 and 25 per cent.

 

Prevention strategies   Drink spiking can occur in a range of different locations and situations, against a variety of victims, using a number of different methods and for many different reasons. Therefore, prevention strategies that target only a single type of audience will be limited in their effectiveness.


Other reports

Neame A 2003 Beyond “drink spiking”: Drug and alcohol facilitated sexual assault , Melbourne : Australian Institute of Family Studies

 

Fyfe M & Newell B 2002 Take away her freedom…and you could lose yours: The Western Australian Police Service Drink Spiking Education Project, Presented at the Third Australasian Women and Policing Conference: Women and Policing Globally, National Convention Centre, Canberra, 20–23 October 2002

 

Fact sheets

DrugInfo Clearinghouse: Drink spiking –for workers

DrugInfo Clearinghouse: Drink spiking: Why it’s not funny – for young people

Drink spiking update

New report

Further resources