Drink spiking is back in the spotlight – so why do Australians know so little about it?
When Queensland MP Brittany Lauga shared her claim of being drugged and sexually assaulted in Yeppoon last week, she threw the national spotlight back on a tool of sexual violence that simmers largely out of view.
Drink spiking is underreported, underestimated and under-researched. The Australian government has not investigated the problem since 2004 and police say there is no typical example or pattern of the crime.
Why do we know so little about it?
What is drink spiking?
Drink spiking is the act of adding alcohol or drugs to a person’s drink without their knowledge or consent.
It is crime in every jurisdiction in Australia, carrying heavy fines and up to five years’ imprisonment in the ACT and Queensland, three years in Western Australia and two years in New South Wales and Victoria.
Using drink spiking as part of committing another indictable offence carries a maximum penalty of 25 years’ imprisonment in NSW.
How prevalent is drink spiking?
We simply don’t know. Collecting data about drink spiking is hindered by a number of barriers, including victims’ unwillingness to come forward. This means police or emergency response staff can’t paint an accurate picture of the problem.
That said, we know it is “probably relatively rare”, according to Nicole Lee, adjunct professor at the National Drug Research Institute and chief executive officer of Hello Sunday Morning. The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research recorded 219 drink spiking incidents in 2022, up from 154 in 2021. The increase may be down to more reporting, or more spiking, we can’t be sure. NSW police confirmed the force had seen an increase in reports of drink spiking.
The Australian government has not undertaken extensive research in the area since 2004. Then, the National Project on Drink Spiking investigation found that from 2002–2003, there were 3,000–4,000 suspected incidents of drink spiking in Australia. One-third were associated with sexual assault and less than one-sixth of those assaults were reported to police.
Global Drug Survey 2022 data showed 2% of respondents experienced spiking in the last 12 months, and 20% over their lifetimes. Almost 20% experienced sexual assault during the incident. Just 7.2% of drink spiking incidents were reported to police.
What is stopping victims from reporting drink spiking?
“There’s a whole range of complex reasons for why people don’t report it and why we don’t capture the data as well as we would like,” Eleanor Costello, of the Alcohol and Drug Foundation, said.
“[Victims] are concerned initially because they are sometimes not really sure what happened. They might not report because they don’t think people will believe them. There is a lot of stigma associated with it and a feeling of blame – ‘What did I do wrong to make this happen?’” she said.
Those barriers are only compounded by, for example, not wanting authorities to detect drugs taken recreationally, and practical barriers around presenting to a police station and taking toxicology tests within the timeframe that the drug is still in the victim’s system.
“If you’re not feeling good, you just want to go home, go to bed and have someone look after you,” Costello said.
What are drinks spiked with?
The most up-to-date research we have on the topic is being undertaken by a team from La Trobe university’s reducing gender based violence network (ReGen) and is due to be published this year.
ReGen senior lecturer, Jessica Ison, said alcohol seems to be the most common spiking substance, but a number of illicit drugs are commonly used.
Rohypnol – known as a “date rape” drug – lingers in a body for a few weeks and so is not an obvious spiking choice. More common are GHB or ketamine, both of which act quickly and leave the system in a matter of hours. Benzodiazepines and their street form, benzos, are also used. An extremely large amount of alcohol that is not normal to ingest in a certain amount of time is picked up in toxicology reports too. But again, more data is needed.
“Often we think of it as being GHB, someone’s chucked a roofie in someone’s drink, benzos or ketamine. Sometimes it’s not as obvious or calculated as that, and it can be intentionally getting someone really drunk,” said Costello.
Why has the government not investigated drink spiking since 2004?
“Because the prevalence of it we think has been fairly low, there’s not been a lot of research into it,” said Lee.
Data is collected across states but not in a systematic way, Costello said, although “it is not for a lack of wanting to”. To collect population-based data and back it up with toxicology reports is challenging; “It’s quite a complex process to get a national dataset on the actual numbers of reported and confirmed drink spikings,” she said.
She said that more national action is needed around the points at which drink spiking can be prevented – including bar staff, first responders, crowd controllers and support systems.
What does drink spiking look like?
“Often it’s passed off with, ‘They’ve just had too much to drink’,” Costello said.
But what former Newcastle student “Marcie” (not her real name) says she experienced when she was spiked five years ago was completely different. “I bought an espresso martini and that is the last thing I remember,” she said. She was later told she flew into an aggressive rage and acted completely out of character.
Victims might feel dizzy, sleepy or nauseous. They might have slow reaction times, and their judgment and coordination may be more exaggerated than it would usually be. Any out-of-the-ordinary physical reaction or behaviour is a red flag.
How do the police approach drink spiking?
“The problem is not in the laws, it is in the policing of them,” Lee said. Drink spiking is notoriously hard to make convictions around, generally relying on victims to self-report and take a toxicology test within hours of the incident, before the process of proving the substance was not intentionally ingested and collecting enough evidence to pinpoint the perpetrator.
The NSW police said all drink spiking reports are fully investigated. Assistant commissioner Brett McFadden said there is no single typical example of a drink spiking, nor a pattern to indicate how and when it may occur.
Access to a toxicology test is often at the police’s discretion, regardless of state or territory, Ison said. Her research found victims generally encounter “very poor” response systems, with some recalling “going to the hospital and being treated like a dumb drunk girl and not being believed.”
Do we know anything about the perpetrators?
“The very little research we do have suggests that most drink spiking is people pranking each other,” most often men and most often with alcohol, said Lee. She thinks that is largely down to “permissive” and “cavalier” attitudes to alcohol.
The rest is done, it is assumed, with nefarious intent, primarily theft and sexual assault.
According to Ison, drink spiking must be considered within the broader cultural context of alcohol and men’s entitlement to women’s bodies, which bolsters the myth that “young women are just making it up”.
“It’s a man problem, generally,” said Lee. While everyone can take steps to make themselves less vulnerable to spiking, “it’s really not [the victim’s] responsibility to make sure they’re safe, it’s society’s responsibility to make sure the perpetrator is not able to commit those crimes.”
Is there a profile of a typical drink spiking victim?
Young women appear to be particularly at high risk – but there is no data regarding spiking among, for example, the LGBTQI+ community and older groups.
Summer time, festival season and when people are out and about more, is probably a higher-risk time, said Costello.
There is so little systematic data – and so few people willing to talk about their experiences – that Ison, who is soon to release a report on drink spiking in the Bendigo region, has turned to online forum Reddit, analysing 14,000 posts to learn more about the experiences of victim-survivors.
She has learned that drink spiking is deeply traumatic. “If [victims] weren’t sexually assaulted, they say they are really lucky – but then they say they won’t go to bars, won’t go out alone, won’t socialise. It’s a huge impact on people’s lives, and that’s before sexual assault is considered,” she said.
What are your rights?
You have a right to be tested and be taken seriously, Costello said.
“It’s important that we see this as an issue that can be reported to police, even if you’re not sure. And to normalise seeking medical attention particularly in the first 24 hours,” she said.
The priority for anyone who suspects their drink had been spiked, according to NSW police, is to seek urgent medical assistance, and if in a life-threatening situation contact triple zero.
“Anyone who believes they have been the victim of a drink spiking incident are encouraged to report the matter to police as soon as possible,” a police spokesperson said. “It is vital for investigators to start gathering evidence quickly, so they can track down the person/s responsible before they harm someone else. Reports can be made by contacting or attending your local police station.”
Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
