Prof Adam Winstock, a trained consultant psychiatrist from the Global Drugs Survey, explained that “Needles have to be inserted with a level of care […] The idea these things can be randomly given through clothes in a club is just not that likely.
Fourteen soccer fans from the same section of the stadium felt a prick and subsequently became unwell, although initial toxicological reports found nothing.
[18] [better source needed] Also in May 2022, in the city of Hasselt (Limburg), twenty-four youngsters became unwell at teen festival We R Young after what may have been needle spiking or mass hysteria.
[19] In May 2022, Australian musician Zoè Zanias of Linea Aspera claimed she was attacked in a needle-spiking at the Berghain nightclub in Berlin, suffering from respiratory depression and an unwanted "psychedelic" experience as a result.
[24] In October 2021 it was reported that British home secretary Priti Patel had requested police forces investigate the alleged incidents.
[25] In Ireland, Young Fine Gael drafted a bill, which Fine Gael members introduced in Seanad Éireann in July 2023, "to provide for the specific offence of spiking characterised by the administration, injection, or causation of the taking orally of a substance, knowing that the person to whom the substance is administered, injected, or caused to be taken does not consent, or being reckless as to whether the person consents, and where the perpetrator intends to overpower or sedate the person, to engage in a sexual act, cause harm, make a gain or cause a loss, or otherwise commit an offence.
[27][28] Campaigners also called on nightclubs to impose tougher checks on entry; an online petition on the issue was considered by Parliament on 4 November 2021, where it was decided no changes to the law should be made.