I remember thinking “gosh, that was lucky” as the colleague I was out with gathered up our drinks and handed them back to the bartender. She thought she had spotted someone slip something into the gin and tonics we’d just bought.
I’d had a sip before she shouted across the table. After the mental sigh of relief, I remember thinking what a waste it was to tip a whole round of drinks down the sink.
I don’t remember much more after that. As someone who doesn’t like being out of control and who rarely gets drunk, you know when something isn’t right.
• Investigation: Inside Britain’s hidden drink-spiking epidemic
I suddenly got very hot and it felt like my brain was moving at two speeds. I had enough presence of mind to know something was very wrong, but I couldn’t get my arms or legs to move in the way I wanted. If this has never happened to you it is difficult to explain the panic you feel when you realise you can’t control your own body.
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I still hadn’t put it together in my head that I had been spiked but I knew I needed to get out as quickly as possible. I ordered an Uber while locked in a toilet cubicle, waited for it to arrive and then headed back to my colleagues, whispering to one that I needed to leave.
She helped me carry my bags and I remember falling into the car and being embarrassed that she might think I was drunk. I was so desperate to save face that I didn’t say a word about why I was leaving.
Thankfully the Uber driver got me home safely. It was a 40-minute journey and I remember none of it. I suspect I was asleep. I don’t remember getting out of the car, or into the house.
I pieced together what had happened when I woke up on the bathroom floor in the early morning, having left the bar hours earlier. The next day was a blur. I couldn’t have made it to a police station or hospital even if I wanted to, I was so sick.
I am ashamed that I didn’t report what happened to me. I wish now that I had. At the time I wasn’t sure what I would even be reporting, or what proof I could possibly provide; I had made it home safely, had nothing stolen or worse. The drugs would be out of my system and I had told nobody at the bar.
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Re-reading the messages I sent the next day it’s clear I was trying to make light of the situation, shrugging it off to friends and colleagues. Nobody — except my parents — suggested I should report what had happened to me. Someone told me I must have had more to drink than I realised and I, knowing this was definitely not the case, agreed with them as I was so deeply embarrassed.
When I saw the Sunday Times front page story about spiking this weekend I decided to post on Twitter/X about what happened to me. I rarely share personal things online and I have to admit I didn’t expect the response. The number of people sharing their experiences has been overwhelming.
I’ve been shocked by the number of parents posting the experiences they and their children have had. Despite reporting what had happened, in most cases they felt nobody listened. The number of men and couples this has happened to — as well as far too many young women — suggests the motive isn’t always straightforward.
People told of how medical professionals accused them of being drunk, of bouncers who threw them out and offered no help, of bars and pubs which shrugged off reports and did nothing to follow up.
One email made me so deeply sad for the man involved, who was spiked when out alone in a village pub and ended up in hospital as a result. A father, he wrote of being “genuinely terrified” of this happening to his own children. But the shame he clearly felt at being accused by police and doctors of having deliberately taken the drugs that left him so incapacitated is what struck me most. He pleaded with them to believe he had been spiked and none of them did. He never drank again.
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A handful of people told me I brought being spiked on myself or questioned whether I had one too many and didn’t want to admit it. But I know that’s not the case. And although nothing happened beyond feeling very unwell for a day or two, others are not as lucky.
Police have only recently started recording data on spiking incidents and the hope is that more people will report this crime to help build a credible picture of what is happening and where. It will also give those who fall victim to spiking the confidence to know they did nothing to deserve it and should not be ashamed.
Kate McCann is the political editor of Times Radio
