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There have been widespread reports in the UK of "needle spiking," where a person, usually a woman, claims to have been jabbed with something in a bar.

This has received increasing attention, including from the police:

Northumbria Police area identified as one of UK's hotspots for needle spiking incidents

But the Home Affairs Committee report on spiking highlights what it calls a "new phenomenon" of needle spiking - where people are secretly injected with a substance - with often debilitating effects.

Though the North East does not feature in the top areas for overall spiking incidents, Northumbria Police was identified as one of several hotspots for the latest needle spiking trend.

Confusingly, this may be conflated with drink spiking, which is more straightforward and could be adding more alcohol or another drug to a drink.

There are numerous photos of apparent injection sites etc., but there seems to be little or no solid evidence in the form of "Ms. X was examined, a puncture wound was found, and there were barbiturates in her blood stream."

What do we know so far about reports of ‘spiking’ with needles?

This Psychology Today article, The British Needle-Spiking Panic, implies it's all mass hysteria:

  • Claims of syringe attacks on British women may be an urban myth.
  • Despite over 1300 'attacks' in the past 6 months, there is yet to be a single confirmed case or conviction.
  • To inject someone with a needle at a nightclub while out with friends - and without anyone realizing -defies credulity.

It seems it is believed to be widespread in every part of Britain by many others:

Is there a good explanation of what is going on?

Oddthinking
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thelawnet
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    Note that the articles that are skeptical or the claims of needle attacks primarily point out that it would be an ineffective means of drugging random strangers. However, it is only necessary for people to be silly enough to *think* it would work for it to be happening. – Obie 2.0 Apr 28 '22 at 16:10
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    there are a number of questions: is it happening on the sort of scale suggested by the media? And is it even happening at all? If yes, then what are they injecting with? Is there a solid report with forensic evidence to prove one such case? – thelawnet Apr 28 '22 at 17:23
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    I'm not interested in whether it's effective. I want to know whether it is happening or if it is hysteria: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10225259/Did-nightclub-needle-attacks-actually-never-happen-Criminologist-casts-doubt.html – thelawnet Apr 28 '22 at 17:46
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    @thelawnet: I am not sure what evidence would be sufficient. One example you gave confirms that the woman was drugged, but we (only) have her testimony of how she was drugged. Another explicitly name an (alleged) victim/activist who [claims to have given police video evidence](https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/businessman-faces-gruelling-wait-tests-22337593), but I am not sure if there was a toxicology report. Will it take a conviction to answer the question? – Oddthinking Apr 29 '22 at 09:42
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    Worse: We may be able to find examples, but that doesn't rule out hysteria over those examples. – Oddthinking Apr 29 '22 at 09:43
  • Here is a recent [BBC News](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-61182345) report. – Weather Vane Apr 29 '22 at 13:06
  • Individual cases seem to be reported much more in local newspapers than national news in the UK, which is what you'd expect if it's not rare. A quick search in my local news site gives about half a dozen stories from the last six months, most with victims named and interviewed, most with photos of puncture sites, most with confirmation from hospitals that they were treated that night and confirmation from police that they are investigating it as a crime, and allusions that other incidents happened where victims didn't want to talk to the press. Not sure how to turn this into an answer though. – user56reinstatemonica8 Apr 29 '22 at 19:44
  • @Oddthinking https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dgpxz/274-reports-but-zero-confirmed-cases-what-we-know-about-needle-spiking-in-the-uk - according to this there have been no charges (as of November 2021). – thelawnet Apr 30 '22 at 19:14
  • This was just published https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5802/cmselect/cmhaff/967/report.html but conflates 'adding things to drinks' with 'use of noodles', so is not that great. E.g., "The Alcohol Education Trust says spiking is often done as a “prank”, " - this appears to refer to stuff added to drinks, not needles. – thelawnet Apr 30 '22 at 19:17
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    the written evidence claims https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/42866/pdf/ 'the emerging feature of using hypodermic needles appears to be unique to the United Kingdom with limited occurrences outside the U.K.' - which suggests either that men all over the UK decided to do this in a short space of time, but no men outside the UK, or that this is some kind of UK-wide hysteria driven by media reports. – thelawnet Apr 30 '22 at 19:20
  • according to this: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/france-gripped-by-panic-over-needle-attacks-at-discos-fpzbdbknq the panic has recently spread to France – thelawnet Apr 30 '22 at 19:27
  • there is a case here where an entire nightclub was detained over claims of needle spiking: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/clubbers-trapped-inside-nightclub-hours-25342562 which turned out later to be false https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/19711701.police-say-no-one-victim-spiking-huge-response-bingley/ (the fact it was not true, was not reported in any national newspapers) – thelawnet Apr 30 '22 at 19:33
  • here is an analysis of spiking from Scotland Police Authority December 2022: https://www.spa.police.uk/spa-media/qw4duoii/pdf-item-4-2-spiking-update.pdf Of 601 claims: 30% via needle, 40% via drink, 30% unknown. Needle claims relate to 'feeling pain' and 'red mark'. Zero witnesses to actual needle spiking.. Of 601 needle/drink/other claims, 122 'no crime' (i.e. no spiking occurred), 32 w/associated sex crime, 3 w/ theft, hence apparently 444 just for the hell of it, or unsuccessful. Four people charged. – thelawnet Jul 03 '23 at 17:28

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