University is supposed to be a time when students are free to party with their friends in clubs until the early hours of the morning, enjoying a newfound freedom. Students should be worrying about how much they’ll have to pay for an Uber home rather than fearing that they may not arrive home safely the next morning at all. However, with cases of spiking rising in Universities across the country, the latter is all too familiar to many young adults.
Unfortunately, spiking is nothing new. Women are forever being told to cover their drinks on nights out in case somebody spikes their drink – a sad reality that many women have been faced with for years. Now the method of spiking has transitioned into that of needle injection, this being absolutely terrifying especially for those new to the clubbing scene. No woman should have her safety threatened on a night out yet victims of spiking know all too well the effect the injections can have on their physical and mental health.
A University of Birmingham student, Amy Taylor, went clubbing on campus and could not believe that she had been a victim of spiking, at first dismissing throbbing on her arm as being caused by somebody bumping into her. It was only after experiencing a ‘fuzzy’ feeling that she knew that something more serious had happened to her. Similar experiences have been told by students across the country. 19-year-old University of Nottingham student, Zara Owen, woke up after a night out with a ‘shooting pain’ in her leg and no memory of the events of the previous night, despite not having much to drink.
These spikings can leave students fearing for their safety and never wanting to go on a night out again. The physical health of students is an obvious cause for concern when it comes to spiking with symptoms leaving victims in a lot of pain, becoming disoriented and in some cases, ‘paralysed.’ Victims can also find themselves in A&E awaiting tests to see whether they have contracted any disease or virus through the needle injection. Spikings can also have a detrimental impact on the mental health of victims as students have to deal with the fear and anxiety of going out, often removed from the support network of their families they would have had if they were at home, leaving them to feel isolated and anxious.
It is clear that more needs to be done to protect university students at clubs, pubs and bars. Bag checks and higher levels of security would help reduce the use of needles in these venues with some people going as far to suggest that needle spiking should be dealt with the ‘same urgency as terrorism.’ This is a nationwide issue that is only becoming more prominent when this should not be the case. Students have recognised that more can be done and have taken it upon themselves to boycott club nights and certain events until better security is introduced. No student should fear going out – with the power students have to make a change, hopefully they can begin to return to the safe and enjoyable social life they deserve to have.