Warwick students are boycotting clubs next Wednesday and Thursday to protest drink spiking

Warwick students are boycotting clubs next Wednesday and Thursday, to put pressure on venues to do more to combat drink spiking. The boycott has been organised by @girlsnightinwarwick, the Warwick branch of a nationwide campaign to combat the recent increase in the number of drinks being spiked.

After initially organising the boycott for Thursday 28th October, the group added the second date of Wednesday 27th, as many clubs and societies attend POP! at the SU’s Copper Rooms every Wednesday night.

GirlsNightIn is asking for clubs and bars to improve their entry security through increased body and bag searching, provide more obvious help points and better care for those who think they have been spiked, and provide free drink protection devices. The group is also calling for better CCTV at alcohol serving stations to be able to see faces in aim to help press charges.

Posting on their Instagram, the group said: “Spiking has become an epidemic. Never before have we heard of so many students waking up with no memory of what had happened the night before.

“This is not getting ‘black-out drunk’, this is getting drugged and is something that can be changed.”

The boycott is being supported by a number of Warwick students and societies, including ProtectWarwickWomen, a group who last year occupied the Piazza to protest sexual assault on campus. On their Instagram, they encouraged all Warwick students to join in the national boycott, so as not to “allow clubs and bars to keep profiting off students until they can prove that their spaces are safe for us to go out without fear of spiking.”

ProtectWarwickWomen have also contacted popular clubs and bars in Leamington, Coventry and Birmingham, such as Kasbah, Smack and Neon, to see what their existing anti-spiking measures are and to make some suggestions to them. They are currently awaiting responses. The full list can be seen below.

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