Spiking with needles in clubs ‘not a new problem’

SPIKING with needles in nightclubs was a problem in Birmingham 20 years ago, according to a city MP.

There is growing concern about needle spiking, when an unsuspecting person is injected with date-rape drugs such as Rohypnol or Gamma Hydroxybutyrate, which can also be added to drinks.

Jess Phillips, Labour MP for Yardley, said that bringing a needle into a nightclub should be treated with the same seriousness as bringing a knife.

Speaking in Parliament, she said that while spiking had recently become a widely-publicised issue, it had actually been going on for years.

She said: “That kind of spiking is not necessarily a new phenomenon.

“I am a little old for nightclubs now – actually, I am not – but I remember there being a similar phenomenon.

“There was a story about a particular nightclub in Birmingham. It is no longer there... there were all these stories about pinpricks, and I am talking 20 years ago.”

Ms Phillips told MPs: “To me, carrying into a nightclub a drug to put into somebody’s drink, or for injection– it seems harrowing, to inject somebody – is like carrying a knife, a weapon. In fact, it is not like it – it is carrying a weapon. The only aim is to harm.”

Bars and clubs across the West Midlands have stepped up measures to keep drinkers safe amid rising reports of drink spiking and needle injection.

Victims have included student Amy Taylor, who spoke out after being pricked with a needle during a night out in Birmingham on October 30.

She was left feeling “fuzzy” and couldn’t walk after the incident at the Guild of Students club night between 2.30-3am.

Four other clubbers also reported being spiked by the same method at Snobs nightclub over the same weekend, October 29-31.

Police were investigating a further ten ‘needle stick’ reports across Birmingham, Solihull, Wolverhampton and Coventry in a single week between October 18 - 26.

MPs were considering a petition, created by university graduate Hannah Thomson, calling on the Government to make it law for nightclubs to search guests on arrival to prevent “harmful weapons” entering.

However Ms Phillips said that there should be precautions to ensure that searches themselves did not become a form of assault.