Here are some important things you need to know about drinking and needle sticking

News stories about alleged drinking and needle sticking incidents sometimes attract significant attention; But experts say they can also instill fear in the public and fuel misconceptions about needle sticking.

Beverage spiking is the act of adding alcohol or drugs to a person’s drink without their consent.

Injection or injection (administration of a drug by injection without consent) is a phenomenon that has attracted media attention in recent years, particularly in the United Kingdom, but there have also been a number of reported cases in Australia.

Here are some things you need to know.

Some studies and researchers say increased risk is over-perceived

Some peer-reviewed studies suggest that the public’s perceived likelihood of a spike has been exaggerated, and several experts interviewed by the ABC on the subject agree that this is the case.

But it is difficult to prove precisely how common the spike is. This is because:

• People don’t always report spike events to authorities
• When they do this, the authorities may not believe them
• Some victims cannot access relevant toxicology tests
• Some substances are difficult to test for or may be rapidly metabolized.

While acknowledging these limitations, a peer-reviewed 2023 survey of more than 1,900 people in Berlin However, it was concluded that the risks of drinking and needle sticks were greatly exaggerated by those surveyed.

Berlin researchers assessed that media coverage may contribute to a “distorted” perception of risk around drinking and needle sticking.

a refereed British study, also conducted in 2023, interviewed more than 130 spike victims and also found that the prevalence of needle sticking may have been misrepresented by media reports.

In Melbourne, Shaun Greene, an emergency physician and clinical toxicologist at Austin Health, declined to comment on needle stick because he has never seen it in his professional practice and the research base on the subject is limited.

But Dr Greene agreed that sometimes the fear of a rise in drinking outweighs the reality.

“I do believe that that increased drinking is occurring, but I believe the majority of those cases are people who are putting extra alcohol in the drink rather than drugs.”

Police data has limitations but suggests drinking and needle sticking are not that common

Police data may not be an accurate indicator of a sudden increase in prevalence; because research shows that people may choose not to report alleged incidents to the police, and some feel their reports are not taken seriously.

But Victoria Police said the idea that booze spiking was common in the community was a “misconception”, adding that fewer than 40 booze offenses had been recorded in the 12 months to March 2024.

Victoria Police also pointed to a “suspected relationship between illicit alcohol served in venues and DUI allegations investigated”, but said it was not known how widespread this was.

Victoria Police also said there was no evidence of needle sticking in Victoria, while police in the NT, Tasmania and Western Australia were not aware of any reports of needle sticking.

NSW police have received reports of two dozen “syringe assault” crimes recorded at licensed venues (clubs or bars) since mid-2021, but only one of these has been pursued by police.

Over the same period, NSW crime statistics data shows there were fewer (17) reports of the same crime occurring at home rather than a licensed premises. But by comparison, these matters were much more likely to end up in court; More than half did so.

South Australian and Queensland police said inconsistencies in the classification of the crime meant they could not say whether it had been reported.

Researchers found alcohol was the most common substance in cases where alcohol was allegedly adulterated

Media reports often suggest that so-called ‘date rape’ drugs such as GHB, tranquilizers or Rohypnol are used to enhance drinking, but these are rarely detected in studies.

On the contrary, alcohol is present in most cases where the test is performed.

Dr Greene said alcohol was the most common culprit in the drinking spike “by a mile” and that “the drugs used (in the drinking spike) do not cause long-term effects on physical health”.

Dr Greene said the use of drugs such as GHB as drink additives was not as common as people thought, but acknowledged there were testing limitations.

GHB is metabolized more quickly than some other drugs and may not show up if testing is not done quickly enough.

And victims of the alleged spike are having difficulty accessing timely and relevant testing at all.

However, GHB is rarely detected when tested.

A Western Australian study of 101 suspected drinkers admitted to hospital in Perth. did not identify a single case in which GHB or another sedative drug was placed in a drink in a bar or nightclub setting.

Dr Greene leads Victoria’s Australian Emerging Drugs Network (EDNAV) study, which is testing a small proportion of patients presenting to Victoria’s emergency departments with severe toxicity related to illicit drugs.

Many of the patients who drink, who often show symptoms such as dizziness or vomiting, are not eligible for the tests in this study, which help detect dangerous drugs circulating in the community, such as synthetic opioids, Dr Greene said.

However, a small number of binge drinking cases in recent years were tested through this study, and the most common substance found in all of them was once again alcohol.

The study never analyzed a needlestick case, and there are no published studies examining specifically what substances are involved in needlesticks.

Illegal drugs like GHB are rare in sexual assaults compared to alcohol

Concerns about the increase are often linked to fears of crime such as sexual assault.

There are also misconceptions about the substances most likely to be involved in sexual assaults where intoxication is present, experts said.

Again, research has shown that alcohol is much more likely to play a role in these situations than ‘date-rape’ or sedative drugs such as GHB.

Clinical neuropsychologist Laura Anderson wrote a 2019 study on drug-facilitated sexual assaults in Victoria.

Dr Anderson’s Peer-reviewed study analyzed data from 204 sexual assault allegations reported to police in Victoriawhere there is a perception that alcohol or other drugs may have been involved.

The term “drug-facilitated sexual assault” includes incidents in which a person may have been intentionally drugged (augmented) without their knowledge.

The study also included sexual assaults in which someone was still too drunk to consent even though the escalation was not alleged; This scenario, Dr Anderson said, was much more common.

It found there was a “disconnect between public perception and the evidence base” on the substances most commonly involved in drug-facilitated sexual assaults.

His research found that alcohol consumption was reported in 80 percent of cases.

GHB was found in only six cases and only two cases where personal consumption was not reported.

“And it doesn’t matter if it’s drugs or alcohol, if they couldn’t consent, it could still lead to sexual assault,” he said.

Sexual assaults are often committed by someone you know

Experts said stories about pegging are often framed with the assumption that the alleged perpetrator is a stranger in a public place, such as a nightclub, who intends to sexually assault the nailing victim.

I repeat; While this certainly happens, research shows that the majority of sexual assaults occur at home, by someone the complainant knows.

This is also what Dr Anderson found in his analysis of suspected drug-facilitated sexual assaults.

Its research found that almost half (46 per cent) took place in private homes, compared to just 5 per cent in bars or nightclubs.

It turns out that assaults are much more likely to occur at home (by someone you know) rather than in a club or bar.

Again, I would like to point out that this study only examined assaults reported to the police, and not everyone who is attacked will go to the police.

But the study’s findings were consistent with other research on the nature of sexual assaults.

“It was much more common for this to occur at a house party or if a group of people had gone out and returned to someone else’s house,” Dr Anderson said.

Research researcher Jessica Ison, of La Trobe University, said the media’s tendency to cover spiking stories in which perpetrators are strangers in nightclubs or bars “distorts the facts” about what spiking and sexual assault are most common.

Although he said that such increases still occurred, the truth was that the increase was mostly carried out by someone the victim knew.

“It’s the classic thing of being told not to walk home alone in the dark, but the most dangerous place for a woman in terms of domestic violence is the home,” she said.

He said better media reporting on the rise needed to provide balanced, evidence-based information and focus on the actions of perpetrators, not victims.