55 per cent of girls have had their drinks spiked, says Tab poll

Last week, The Tab asked its readers, “have you ever had your drink spiked?”

More than 1700 people responded to the question. In total, 43 per cent of those polled stated that they had been spiked.

As expected, there was a gender split: of the more than 1100 girls who answered, 55 per cent had been spiked. Of the more than 660 male respondents, 25 per cent said they had been spiked.

“I was in Revs in Cardiff and realised quickly after having only drunk a couple of drinks,” one guy told The Tab. “I quickly told a friend and left the club in a taxi as soon as possible. I found out the next day that several others I knew had also been spiked the same night.”

On Wednesday, The Tab published a story about a Loughborough student who was spiked in a club. Amanda Stanton-Nelson explains that she was “paralysed after only three drinks”:

“I locked myself in a bathroom and waited out periods of being paralysed,” she says. “I was unable to hear my phone on the floor beside me yet completely visually aware of my surroundings. These symptoms, followed by periods of unconsciousness, lasted roughly two hours. While ideally I’d have found help from bar staff or paramedics during this period, at least I know no one had access to me while unconscious.”

Cat Reid, 22, was spiked at a club in central London. She was on a night out with friends. “I wasn’t drinking much because I’d been out the night before and had a big one,” she explains. “We were drinking vodka and I probably had four drinks – which isn’t enough to get me drunk. I know what I’m like when I’m drunk. When we were about to leave, a guy offered to refill my drink, and I said ‘sure’ – then my friend suggested we get a taxi to beat the rush. I left without finishing the drink. It was probably about 2.30am.

“We got in an Uber and as soon as it started to move I felt so ill, and had to ask the taxi driver to stop. I got out and threw up in a drain. We ended up getting six different taxis down the same stretch of road – every time the car jolted I had to be violently sick. By the sixth taxi, I was shaking and hyperventilating. My friend called an ambulance and the Uber driver let me sit in the back seat of the car. I curled up in a ball.”

She was struggling to breathe and panicking – her friend called 999 again and Cat’s status was updated. An ambulance arrived and she was taken onboard. They took her blood and helped to stabilise her breathing. By this time it was almost 7am; Cat declined the offer of a hospital bed (“I just wanted to go home”) and promised she would go to a walk-in if she felt unwell the next day. They said she had been spiked.

She now assumes that the guy who offered to get her a new drink had slipped something in the first one. “I know it sounds dramatic but when I was hyperventilating and shaking I honestly thought I was going to die,” she says. “I’m just so glad that my friend was there and we ended up in a taxi together.”