My Lords, spiking is a serious matter and people who do it should be caught and punished, but I issue a note of caution, because I am slightly worried about Amendment 292R, put forward by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer. I am worried it might be too reactive and respond to the perception that this is a major problem, rather than a cool factual analysis. Calling for an urgent review could unintentionally fuel what might be a moral panic and create a climate of fear.
To give some context, despite the headlines and social media hysteria, some careful commentators and a range of experts have raised doubts, queried some of the sensationalist coverage and warned against overreacting. There was a useful article in Vice that started the debunking, which quoted Guy Jones, a senior scientist at the drugs charity The Loop, who pointed out that
“few drugs would be able to be injected like this”,
using a needle. Administering drugs in this way is just not an easy task. Some experts have explained that it would be particularly difficult to use date-rape drugs, because of the larger needle that would be needed and that it would need to be in the body for at least 20 seconds.
The director of the Global Drug Survey, Adam Winstock, notes:
“There are very few widely accessible drugs”
that could be used in this way and given intramuscularly in small enough volumes that people would not notice. A critical care nurse I saw interviewed suggested that the likelihood of administering drugs like ketamine was virtually zero. After a high-profile report about somebody being infected by HIV, the National AIDS Trust pointed out:
“Getting HIV from a needle injury is extremely rare. A diagnosis takes weeks.”
So it is worth pausing.
9.15 pm
It is true that, although the police have accumulated lots of reports, there are very few instances where there are injuries that would be consistent with a needle. Yet, despite these contradictions, the lack of evidence and some doubts about the feasibility of injection spiking, all sorts of institutions, such as universities and political organisations, have accepted these stories at face value and ended up sending out scare messages themselves. When a story goes viral on social media, students find themselves deluged with official email warnings about unacceptable, reprehensible and life-threatening practices if they go out for the night to a nightclub. I am concerned that those in positions of authority risk frightening young women and demonising the same generation of young men with no evidence of a wide-scale problem.
At the moment, a petition that has been officially sanctioned by all sorts of people is going round saying that nightclubs should be legally required to search guests thoroughly. That is no small matter. It is worrying how many people are so fearful that they would endorse full body searches for a night out. I note that students at the University of Bristol have set up a group called “Girls Night In”, which urges young women to stay indoors until clubs change their ways. In other words, fear can be a serious barrier to women’s freedom. I want to avoid ratcheting up threats and undermining women’s confidence about participating in public life fully. As legislators, we need to encourage a sense of perspective and at least consider that anything we do does not fuel what might be a moral panic. I know that the review would look at facts, but the fact of having an urgent review might actually make things worse.
I have a particular query for the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, on Amendment 284, which stresses that “‘conduct’ includes speech”. Obviously, as somebody who is always concerned about free speech, how does he envisage people not ultimately being criminalised and penalised for things they say? How does he balance that with the need to protect people’s freedom of speech?