Students across the UK are planning to boycott nightclubs to demand that drink-spiking is taken seriously.
Groups from more than 30 universities including Edinburgh, Bristol, and Leeds are hoping that staying away from bars and clubs will highlight how more needs to be done to stop the illegal drugging.
Over the past week many people have come forward to share their stories of being spiked.
Yesterday Edinburgh student Anna Stephen told the Mirror how she was left unable to speak after a night-out with older students who she'd been buddied up with.
Campaigner Mair Howells recalled how she was found in a men's toilet cubicle after blacking out at a club.
Claudia Laing, 19, collapsed and was unable to move inside '42's in Manchester after downing a Jagerbomb last week and began foaming at the mouth.
The hundreds of upsetting stories that those targeted have bravely shared have helped contribute to a sense that something needs to change.
The boycott has been spearheaded by Martha Williams, a third-year university student from Edinburgh who created the Girls Night In Edinburgh Instagram account.
People have shared their stories of being spiked on the page, which has given energy to a nationwide campaign pushing for nightlife reforms.
Martha has written an open letter to all nightclubs in Edinburgh with suggestions people have been sending her, including more thorough entry checks, having high definition CCTV, see-through cups, and training staff in drug misuse.
Larissa Kennedy, the president of the National Union of Students, has said it’s “disgusting” that so many women are getting spiked.
“My rage, love and solidarity goes out to all those who have been impacted by these violent acts, and all other women and marginalised folks who experience sexual violence on our campuses and in our communities," she told the Huff Post.
Students in Manchester are planning to boycott clubs on October 27 in a bid to force venues to increase safety measures.
It comes as police investigate reports that three women fell ill at Ark nightclub in the city last month.
Students told the Manchester Evening News they "don't feel safe" in nightclubs at the moment.
Morgan Hall, 19, who studies at Manchester Metropolitan University, doesn’t feel safe in clubs at the moment.
She said: “It doesn’t feel safe if you’re in a club and a girl.
“I know someone who was spiked by a bartender, but it isn’t just women being spiked."
The Liberation and Access Officer at the University of Manchester’s Students’ Union added: “People need to feel safe going out and people doing the spikings need to know they can’t, that venues won’t accept it.
“The number of emails we’ve had from students saying ‘we don’t feel safe’ and don’t feel safe to go out.
“I’ve heard people saying they’ll treat the boycott as a lads night out. But men get spiked too.”
Spiking has long been a problem in the UK, but has been thrust into the spotlight over the past week due to reports of an alarming form of the crime.
Numerous woman have been injected with drugs while out in several UK cities.
While there may be a recent upwards trend in cases of the form of illegal drugging, it is not a new phenomenon.
Analysis of records by The Mirror found that people have been spiked via injection at least for the past two decades.
In the earliest case, a woman reported being injected by a stranger during a night out at a club in 2001 in St Helens, Merseyside.
She suffered dizziness, high temperature and a raging thirst and was given precautionary hepatitis treatment.
Her mother said at the time: “This is our worst nightmare come true.”
In 2002, a 20-year-old woman said she ignored a man who tried to talk to her while she danced in the Escape club in Swansea.
Figures obtained by the BBC show that there were 26,000 reported incidents of spikings overall in England and Wales since 2015.
Many incidents of drink spiking go unreported because people are unaware they’ve fallen victim to it, meaning the true number is likely much higher.
