News of alleged needle-and-drink incidents sometimes garner significant interest — but experts say they can also stoke fear and fuel misconceptions about growing up in the community.

Drink Spiking is the act of adding alcohol or drugs to a person’s drink without consent.

Needle spiking – administering a drug with a needle without consent – is a phenomenon that has attracted significant media attention in recent years, particularly in the UK, but there have also been a number of reported cases in Australia.

Here are some things you should know.

Some studies and researchers say that the risk of growth is over-perceived

Some peer-reviewed studies suggest the perceived likelihood of growth is overestimated in the community, and several experts the ABC spoke to on the subject agreed that was the case.

However, it is difficult to prove definitively how common spiking is. This is because:

• People don’t always report growing incidents to the authorities
• When they do, the authorities may not believe them
• Some victims cannot access the relevant toxicology tests
• Some substances are difficult to test for or may metabolize quickly

While acknowledging these limitations, an inter par evaluation 2023 survey of over 1,900 people in Berlin concluded, however, that the risk of drinking and needling was overestimated by those surveyed.

The Berlin researchers believed that media coverage could be contributing to a “distorted” perception of the risk of drinking and needling.

A peer reviewed The British study, also conducted in 2023, interviewed more than 130 victims of the explosion and also found that the prevalence of needle-sharpening may have been skewed by media coverage.

In Melbourne, Austin Health emergency physician and clinical toxicologist Shaun Greene declined to comment on the needle stick because he had never encountered it in his professional practice and the research base was limited.

But Dr. Greene agreed that sometimes the fear of drinking alcohol outweighs the facts.

“I do think there is an increase in drinking, but I think most of those cases are people putting extra alcohol in their drink rather than a drug.”

Police data has limitations, but suggests that drinking and needling is not that common

Police data is not necessarily an accurate indicator of increased prevalence, as research shows that people may choose not to report alleged incidents to the police and some who do believe their reports have not been taken seriously.

However, Victoria Police said the idea that drinking was widespread in the community was a “misconception”, adding that fewer than 40 drinking offenses were recorded in the 12 months to March 2024.

Victoria Police also suggested “a suspected link between illicit alcohol served at the venues and alleged alcohol-related incidents, which is being explored”, but said it was not known how widespread it was.

Victoria Police also said there was no evidence of needlesticks taking place in Victoria, NT Police, Tasmania, Western Australia were not aware of any reports of needlesticks.

NSW Police have received two dozen reports of “syringe attack” offenses recorded in licensed venues (clubs or pubs) 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 offense taking place at a home rather than an authorized place. But by comparison, those matters were much more likely to go to court – more than half of them did.

Police in South Australia and Queensland said discrepancies in how the crime was classified meant they could not say whether it had been reported.

Researchers have found that alcohol is the most common substance in alleged cases of alcoholism

Media reports frequently suggest that so-called “date-rape” drugs such as GHB, sedatives or Rohypnol are used in the drink, but in studies they are rarely detected.

Rather, alcohol is found in most cases where testing occurs.

Dr. Greene said alcohol was the most common culprit in binge drinking “by a country mile” and “the drugs that are used (in increasing drinking) don’t cause long-term effects on physical health.”

Dr. Greene said the use of drugs like GHB in spiked drinking is not as common as people thought, but acknowledged there are testing limitations.

GHB metabolizes faster than other drugs and may not show up if testing is not done quickly enough.

And growing numbers of alleged victims struggle to access timely and relevant testing.

But when testing does occur, GHB is rarely detected.

A Western Australian study of 101 suspected drinkers attending Perth Hospital has not identified any cases where GHB or any other sedative drug was introduced into a drink at a pub or nightclub.

Dr. Greene is leading the Victorias Emerging Drugs Network of Australia (EDNAV) trial, which is testing a small proportion of patients presenting to Victorian emergency departments with severe illicit drug toxicity.

Most patients who consume alcohol, which Dr. Greene said those who typically had symptoms such as dizziness or vomiting did not qualify for testing in this study, which helps detect dangerous drugs circulating in the community, such as synthetic opioids.

But in recent years, a small number of drinking cases have been tested through the study, and again, alcohol was the most common substance found in all.

The study never looked at a case of needle stick, and there are no published studies that specifically examine what substances are involved in needle stick.

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

Concerns about stunting are often linked to fears of crimes such as sexual assault.

Experts said there were also misconceptions about the substances most likely to be involved in sexual assaults where intoxication was present.

Again, research showed that alcohol was much more likely to be involved in these situations, rather than “date rape” or sedative drugs such as GHB.

Clinical neuropsychologist Laura Anderson authored a 2019 study on drug-facilitated sexual assault in Victoria.

of Dr. Anderson The peer-reviewed study analyzed data from 204 alleged sexual assaults reported to Victoria Policewhere there was a perception that alcohol or other drugs may have been involved.

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

The study also included sexual assaults when the spraying was not alleged but someone was still too intoxicated to consent, a scenario that Dr. Anderson said it’s much more common.

She found that there is a “disconnect between public perception and the evidence base” regarding the substances most commonly involved in drug-facilitated sexual assaults.

Her study found that alcohol consumption was reported in 80% of cases.

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

“Also, it doesn’t matter if it’s drugs or alcohol, if they were incapable of giving consent, then it could still lead to sexual assault,” she said.

Sexual assaults are most often committed by someone you know

Experts said spiking stories were often framed with the assumption that the alleged perpetrator was a stranger in a public place, such as a nightclub, who intended to sexually assault his victim.

Again – while this certainly happens, research shows that most sexual assaults occur in a home, by someone known to the complainant.

This was also what Dr. Anderson found in her analysis of drug-facilitated sexual assault suspects.

Her study found that nearly half (46%) took place in private homes, compared to just 5% in bars or nightclubs.

It found that assaults were much more likely to take place at a home – by someone they knew – than in a club or bar.

Again, this study only looked at assaults that were reported to the police, and not everyone who suffers an assault 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 it to happen at a house party or if a lot of people go out and then go back to someone’s house,” said Dr. Anderson.

La Trobe University researcher Jessica Ison said the media’s tendency to report stories where the perpetrators were strangers in nightclubs or bars “distorts the reality” of what is most often sexual assault and sexual assault.

While she said this type of spraying still happened, the reality was that the spraying was more often carried out by someone who was known to the victim.

“It’s that classic sort of thing where we’re told not to go home alone in the dark, but the most dangerous place for a woman in terms of domestic violence is at home,” she said.

She said better media reporting on spiking should provide balanced and evidence-based information and focus on the actions of the perpetrators, not the victims.