Warwick student recounts drink spiking incident

Warwick Students’ Union (SU) has released a video of a firsthand account from a student whose drink was spiked in a club on the first night of term, in order to raise awareness of the danger.

In the video, fourth-year English Literature student Eloise Millard recounts how she woke up feeling nauseous, disorientated, weak and with a strange chemical taste in her throat. She had no memory since purchasing a drink shortly after entering the club she went to the night before.

These symptoms all pointed towards her having been spiked with a drug called Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate (GHB). GHB is a central-nervous system depressant available as an odourless, colourless substance, which is very hard to notice in a drink.

When combined with alcohol it can induce amnesia and cause victims to become incapacitated, confused, clumsy and in rare cases lose consciousness.

GHB only remains in the system for 12 hours and detection methods are not readily available in emergency rooms, making it difficult to identify victims of spiking with this drug.

In Eloise’s case the hospital she went to had no way of testing her and this lack of evidence – together with the amnesia which rendered her unable to recall what had happened – meant that although the incident was reported to the police, no further action could be taken.

In the video, Eloise describes how she was later told she acted completely out of character and was unable to retain her balance throughout the night.

She urges viewers to look out for strange behaviour from friends on nights out, as well as ensuring they remain aware and always keep hold of their drinks. Eloise emphasises that although you may not think this will happen to you, the reality of the threat must be remembered.

Chloe Wynne, Welfare and Campaigns Officer at Warwick SU, said she created the video with Eloise after hearing her troubling story and emphasised the importance of taking care not only of yourself but others.

She commented: “We’d encourage students to keep hold of their drinks and be vigilant but do not accept that the onus is on the student not to have their drink spiked, so if you see someone messing around with someone else’s food, drink, property and anything else they have no business in messing with, take action, call it out and stop it.”

You can watch the video here.