“Ow!”
Mikaela looked terrified when she approached me at the bar and told me she thought she might have been poked with a needle, or injected with drugs.
Before her move to London in September for graduate school, my friend Mikaela, 27, was warned by a friend in Germany about the prevalence of spiking across Europe – either by slipping a drug into a drink or injecting drugs into someone’s body with a hypodermic needle.
The phenomena of needle scanning gained attention across the United Kingdom during a “surge across the country in October 2021”, according to a recent report by the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee.
Mikaela, whose last name is withheld due to the nature of her experience, hadn’t even taken a sip of her drink when she felt the stab in her thigh. But she knew something was wrong within five minutes. She became blurry, dizzy and could not see straight. She immediately told me she didn’t feel well.
Mikaela doesn’t remember what happened next, but she suddenly collapsed on the floor among a group of revelers standing in a semi-circle around her limp body. She woke up quickly, but fearing that a stranger would pick her up, I took my hands out from under her shoulders and carried her to the exit.
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Who is targeted by a needle blast?
Two types of spiking are common: a drinking spike, when someone puts drugs or alcohol into a person’s drink without consent, and a needle stick, when someone stealthily injects the victim.
With the addition of a drink, this can include putting alcohol into a non-alcoholic drink, or adding drugs, such as tranquilizers, amphetamines, or others.
“It’s an explosive cocktail,” said Marco Antonio Jimenez, a criminologist and police officer with Spain’s Mossos d’Esquadra, where dozens of needle explosions have been reported so far this year.
The motive behind needle blasts does not always appear to be sexual assault, Jimenez said. It appears that people are aiming for robbery, or to instill fear and intimidation, he said.
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UK police figures show needle incidents usually involve female students in their twenties and have taken place in pubs, clubs and festivals, although house parties also pose a risk as offenders can feel empowered by a lack of surveillance. However, it’s not just a “girl problem”, said Colin Mackie, co-founder of Spike Aware UK, an organization that has been raising awareness of the issue since 2017. Mackie’s son, Greg, died in a spike-related incident in 2017.
In a 2021 YouGov survey, 11% of women and 6% of men in the UK said they had had a spike.
“I felt embarrassed,” said Oscar Bass, 18, who says he Pinned in Watford, England, August. “People didn’t believe me.” When the doctor wasn’t convinced that Ace, a man, could be Spike, a male nurse who said she had once been given Spike convinced Bass to get a necessary blood test.
Interestingly, many of the injections do not contain any medicine at all. The UK National Police Chief’s Council began toxicology testing in December 2021, and by August 2022, 57% of more than 624 samples contained either no or no drug of concern. Only 2% contained a drug supporting a needlestick incident
Does needle trimming still happen?
The threat of needle frequenting inspired social media campaigns, and young people across the UK boycotted nightspots in October 2021.
“It seems to be spreading like wildfire,” Mackey said. Over 175,000 people have signed a petition to the UK government demanding that nightclubs must legally search guests on entry. (Parliament discussed the petition in November 2021 and determined that decisions on searches should be left to local authorities.)
Almost a year later, ongoing reports of needlesticks across Europe have prompted the need for awareness and action against the violent attacks in a post-pandemic era when people crave new experiences.
“There was a knock-on effect,” Mackie said of the spread of the threat beyond Britain into France, Spain and Germany.
“There hasn’t been enough effort to understand the prevalence of breakout incidents, the motive of the perpetrators or the impact on the victims,” Interior Committee Chair Diana Johnson told USA TODAY in an email.
Are tourists at a higher risk of sticking a needle?
For anyone traveling or studying abroad who hasn’t encountered the threat before, knowing that acupuncture is a real possibility is the most important thing, according to Mackie.
He added that tourists were targeted for speeding because they often carry passports, cash or other valuables. And the holiday season poses a high risk, he said, as people attend frequent parties and travel increases.
But it’s not about living in fear, Mackey said. Know the symptoms of a spike: dizziness, confusion or loss of consciousness and unusual behavior such as lack of self-control.
Travel safety tips
► Create a plan: It is important to have a plan of action before a night out in case an attack occurs, including never putting your drink down (make sure you can see your drinks being poured and delivered to you), using the buddy system (especially in unfamiliar places), saving international emergency numbers (999 in the UK) , and searching local hospitals just in case.
“It’s easy to think about what would have happened… in the 20 minutes I was looking for my friends (when I got to the bar),” Mikaela told USA TODAY in an interview. “If I didn’t know about needle stick, I wouldn’t think twice about that needle stick.”
► Report the event: If you’re in a pub or club, immediately tell a member of staff if you or a friend might be spitting, Mackie said, and continue to talk them through the situation. Most importantly, immediately go to the hospital for examination and report the attack to the local authorities.
The NPCC reported 1,032 needle injection incidents between the beginning of September 2021 and the end of December 2021, most of which occurred in October 2021. As of October 2022, there were no needle injection convictions and no charged cases awaiting trial, NPCC spokeswoman Sarah Wolff confirmed to USA TODAY.
► Registration at your embassy: For general travel safety, this allows embassy staff to contact travelers if there is an emergency or crisis developing. US citizens can also enroll in the State Department’s Smart Traveler Enrollment Program.
► Consider travel insurance: Travel insurance is crucial for travelers who become ill or injured abroad. Experts say hospitals abroad will also want to hold personal credit cards or require payment guarantees before providing services.
