A drug feared to be at the centre of the nightclub spiking panic can be purchased and delivered to a buyer’s front door for less than £10, the Sunday Mirror can reveal.
The tablets – which we are not identifying – can be ordered on the internet for just £9, shipped straight to a would-be attacker’s home and used to target women on nights out.
The drug is unlicensed in the UK but is used as prescribed medication in India and Japan. When it is mixed with alcohol, users can experience disorientating effects about 30 minutes later and these can last for up to six hours.
We discovered the horrifying trade after UK-wide reports of revellers being spiked or even injected with needles.
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One expert said the substance we identified would be simplest to use by injection. It can also be crumbled into a powder for lacing drinks.
A source said: “It is really worrying to think this stuff is so readily available.”
The drug is sold on the socalled dark web, accessed using a specialist internet browser.
Many of the latest spiking reports are from Nottingham, where student Zara Owen fell ill in a club and later found what appeared to be a pinprick.
She said this week: “I’m scared. You hear about such things but never think they’ll happen to you.”
The National Police Chiefs’ Council said that since September, when students returned to universities, there have been 198 reports of drink-spiking. Forces received a further 24 reports of people being injected on nights out.
Two men in Nottinghamshire have been arrested and bailed. Det Ch Const Jason Harwin, the NPCC’s lead on drugs, said: “We are clearly very worried at the numbers.”
He said forces are working to make things “hostile” for offenders.
“Far too many women are being targeted,” he added, “but there have been cases of men too. It could happen to anybody.
“We want everyone to go about normal life and clearly businesses need people to enjoy the night-time economy. So it’s in everybody’s interests that this feels safe and is safe.”
He said anyone found guilty of spiking a drink could face up to 10 years’ jail – or more if other offences such as robbery or sex abuse occur.
A campaign, called Girls’ Night In, is calling for people across UK cities to boycott clubs this Thursday to demonstrate that women often do not feel safe when going out.
DrugWise director Harry Shapiro yesterday said people should keep an open mind on injection fears. “It would be wrong to say this is impossible,” he added, “but for the drugs to take effect they’d need to be injected in a vein.
“This doesn’t sound plausible. I’m not suggesting that someone hasn’t had a dig at them with a needle or a sharp object but if you were injecting drugs it wouldn’t just be a prick on the arm.”
