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Drink spiking

What is drink spiking and what drugs are used?

What is drink spiking?

Drink spiking occurs when a substance such as alcohol or another drug is added to a drink without the knowledge of the person who is driking it.

What drugs are used in drink spiking?

Most drink spiking involves adding extra alcohol to ordered drinks. 

It is often suggested that GHB is used in drink spiking, because it can be tasteless, odourless and hard to detect. However, users report that GHB can have an unpleasant taste which would be difficult to disguise. Also, as GHB has powerful depressant effects, many experts believe that if it were often used in drink spiking there would be many more deaths than actually occur, particularly if a victim had been consuming alcohol beforehand.

Drink spiking and sexual assault

Risky drinking is often associated with unwanted sex and rape. Apart from knowingly drinking too much, people can also be victims of drink spiking (adding alcohol or other drugs to a person's drink without their knowledge). However, despite the emphasis on drink spiking in the media, women (and men) are far more likely to have unwanted sex as a result of the loss of inhibition and judgement caused by knowingly drinking to excess.