Drink spiking in Belfast: An Issue Unresolved
Claire Dickson
In November 2021 alarming statistics on drink spiking in Belfast were released by the PSNI. Throughout that month alone, 120 incidents of drink spiking had been reported. Amongst these cases, one of Northern Ireland’s main universities (Ulster University) had reported three incidents whilst chief constable at the time Simon Byrne was speaking of the issue as a ‘priority’ for his team.
However, there exists a plethora of young people out there who continue to experience the issue at close range within Belfast. Upon speaking to a first-year student who was spiked whilst celebrating her friend’s 21st birthday several months ago, she spoke of how she does not normally drink a lot and was only planning on having one drink that night. After ordering a vodka blackcurrant at a bar in the city centre, she left it sitting at her table for less than a minute and continued to drink it upon arrival back at the table. It was just after consuming around half of the drink that she recalls everything going ‘fuzzy’ in the room and beginning to feel drunk ‘which was almost impossible since I had only had less than one drink.’ After experiencing this, she left the bar with some friends as she didn’t feel well. Whilst she is thankful that she got home safely and the incident ‘didn’t end too badly’ she spoke of her continuing shock that she experienced side effects symptomatic of excessive drinking. This was not just confusing for her but to those with her that night also.
A second year student at Stranmillis University also spoke of the concern and fear he experienced in witnessing his friend undergo a spiking incident. What began as an ordinary night out amongst friends took a turn for the worse when his friend went to the bathroom with a group of girls and passed out on the toilet. She then had to be carried out from the toilet whilst he had to phone her brothers. He spoke to me of the alarming physical effects the incident had on the girl as he carried her in a completely limp state, entirely unconscious. When the friends got her home and she eventually came round a little, it was as if she was almost delirious. ‘It was really scary and it was obvious it wasn’t just drunkenness’ he recounted to me. Following the incident, the girl wasn’t able to work out when or how it had happened, nor did her friends as they had all been very careful with their drinks. The girl told this friend of an almost numb feeling she experienced for around a week after the incident.
The final student who recounted their story to me is a second-year criminology student at Ulster University who left her drink on its own in a nightclub for a matter of seconds and noticed a salty taste in it when she drank it again. It was after this that she started falling and drifting in and out of consciousness and her boyfriend and his friend then carried her home. When they reached home, she began foaming at the mouth and was completely unresponsive, leading the others to call an ambulance. She remembers waking up in resuscitation with bags of IV fluid – it was at this stage that the doctor told her she was so drugged up that she would need a further toxicology screen to determine what was present in her system. On her way out of the hospital they got talking to two police officers who said that they were there to take statements because of the huge number of spiking that had taken place in recent times. The student says that she does ‘not regret reporting it because of statistics and resources that could be put into that area – I think I could have contributed to that in some way.’ However, she does not think enough is being done regarding the issue as bottle toppers given to her by the students union are ‘hardly enough.’ The side that really isn’t talked about she feels, is the fact she was having a comedown from drugs she hadn’t intentionally taken for days after the incident.
It isn’t just students who believe more needs to be done on the issue by legislators. Alliance councillor for Botanic Emmet McDonough-Brown gave his opinion on the matter:
‘drink spiking is illegal and it is something that disproportionately affects women in our community, we need greater enforcement to deter it alongside empowering people with testing to help them avoid it. Spiking drinks is wrong as well as being illegal and police must avoid any tendency to see victims as responsible.’
So perhaps there hasn’t been a more pressing, urgent need for further measures to take shape.
Featured image courtesy of Marvin Meyer via Unsplash.
Claire Dickson is Deputy Head of The Scoop and a Politics student at Queen’s University Belfast