Boris Ignachkov Targeted, threatened, and fearful. Over the past 2 months, the “epidemic” of spiking has surged in Britain, leaving women feeling helpless and even more so with the new craze injection spiking.
What happened?
Around September/ October time, once all the university students have moved back in, the reports of drink spiking typically increase. But the reports this year have reached unusually high figures.
Across several social media platforms, dozens of female students have been sharing experiences of blacking out on nights out, saying they had symptoms of, feeling dizzy, drowsy, nauseous, or feeling far more drunk than usual. Only to wake up with an inflamed injection wound on their body.
Posts then littered Instagram warning women of the dangers of foreign, unclean needles posing serious health issues like HIV and that vital hospital attention would be needed within 72 hours!
What have the police done?
As we know, spiking in any form is a criminal offence but there are concerns that the police are failing to take any sexual violence allegations against women seriously. Figures show that if 500 cases of drink spiking have been reported, none will be convicted, that’s outrageous!
CEO of Night-Time Industries Association, Michael Kill, said the reports have “levelled some serious concern” among nightclubs.
He said the NTIA’s members are working with police forces and looking at retraining, safeguarding, and searching protocols at venues.
But many women feel that this is not enough as it does not stop the spiking from happening!
What can we do?
Women across the UK joined the movement GirlsNightIn to boycott nightclubs to promote awareness of women’s rights.
Over 70 cities across the UK are expected to hold a boycott from 25th October to 5th November.
Leeds Student Izzy Broadhurst told ITV that she “urged nightclub owners to take responsibility for the safety of people in their clubs and called out a “culture of victim-blaming. This is a really serious crime, and it can be traumatic and clubs need to acknowledge that and make sure all staff are trained in what to do”.
The only words I have to say is that reporting does not get the job done, it is appalling that women have to take matters into their own hands to find solutions.