Authorities say drink spiking is underreported, more data needed
Authorities say drink spiking in Australia is under-reported, and they don't have clear data on how often it happens. In Queensland, just seven people have gone to court for unlawful drink spiking in the past three years.
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00:00I woke up at about 2, 3am on a friend's couch.
00:07It was really difficult having to piece together where I was, where I'd been and what had happened.
00:16On a Friday evening last December, a professional woman in her late 20s did something unremarkable.
00:23She went for after work drinks with colleagues at a Brisbane bar.
00:28The woman we're calling Jessica had only been there about an hour when her drink was
00:32spiked by a stranger.
00:34Basically what they told me is that I couldn't see anything, I couldn't use my body.
00:39I was completely paralytic.
00:42She had to be carried to an Uber.
00:46When Jessica came to, eight hours had been stolen from her.
00:52You're sort of thinking, have I been sexually assaulted?
00:55She hadn't been, but the ordeal wasn't over.
00:58It was the sickest I'd been in my entire life.
01:00I've never experienced anything like it.
01:04Despite feeling violently ill, she was determined to report the spiking.
01:09Her mother took her to a police station, but she says she was fobbed off and made to feel
01:14like going to hospital for testing would be a drain on resources.
01:18The first question was, well are you sure it's been a spike?
01:21How much did you really have to drink?
01:23Unfortunately, about a third of cases we suspect are sexual assault related type cases.
01:29In Queensland, anyone found guilty of unlawful drink spiking could face five years in prison.
01:36But just seven people have gone to court for the offence in the past three years.
01:41Six were men.
01:43The police need to gather enough evidence to be able to actually determine what it was
01:47spiked with, who did it, and to be able to prove that in a court of law.
01:52They're doing it because they know they can get away with it.
01:55Queensland Police say the service takes all reports of spiking seriously and investigates
02:00on a case-by-case basis.
02:02It doesn't record individual instances of spiking.
02:06When other crimes such as rape, sexual assault or robbery are enabled by spiking, it could
02:12be recorded under those offences.
02:16Jessica wants better advice on what people should do if they've been spiked, and more
02:21effort from police to investigate.
02:24It feels like a violation.
02:27She'll never be able to reclaim that missing time.