Hundreds of clubbers across the country, including in Manchester, claim to have been spiked while on nights out - through drinks or by injection - with many victims needing hospital treatment.
There have been incidents reported in Deansgate, Sackville Street and other parts of Manchester, with some women deciding to boycott clubs as part of the "Girls Night In" campaign.
Protests took place in Manchester city centre in October for the campaign, with hundreds of people joining to take a stance against drink spiking.
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MPs have also considered a petition calling on the Government to make it law for nightclubs to search guests on arrival to prevent “harmful weapons” entering.
The petition now has more than 172,000 signatures and the debate at Westminster Hall heard there have been 280 cases of spiking with a needle in the past two months, compared to 2,600 recorded cases of drink spiking between 2015 and 2019 in the UK.
However, it is likely there have been more cases that have gone unreported to authorities.
Speaking at the Westminster Hall debate, Gower MP Tonia Antoniazzi said: “It is becoming a craze, a trend and it needs to be taken seriously by everyone. Will we have to wait for something terrible to happen before making a change?”
MP for Warwick Matt Western added: “The escalation of scale seems to be quite extraordinary. They have to treat it with as much urgency as terrorism. It is really alarming.”
The debate was heard as part of a wider discussion on violence against women and girls, described as an “epidemic of epic proportions.”
MPs called for education for young boys to stop such behaviour being normalised.
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