London club introduces urine testing amid national spiking reports
(Picture: Hendo Wang/Nightclub)A top London nightclub has started offering urine and drinks testing after increasing reports of women being spiked by injection.
Club-goers at XOYO, near Old Street in Islington, can access the urine and drink tests through a medic who is based on site each night.
The venue, which was voted one of DJ Mag’s Top 100 Clubs, said the service has only been used once since it was introduced and it was found to have a negative result.
However, the club general manager David Vickery said it made club-goers feel safer.
Mr Vickery told the Daily Mail: “I think it’s important if you have somebody who thinks they’ve been spiked, whether they have or not, it should be treated as if they have.
“We’ve got that at XOYO. There’s a lot of anxiety coming out of the pandemic, people are concerned and cautious about going out.
“I think if we can make people safe and feel happier, I don’t see any downside to putting this in place.”
The move comes as the St John Ambulance revealed it is expanding its late-night treatment sites in towns and cities in the run-up to Christmas.
This was in response to hundreds of reports of injection spiking incidents.
The charity hopes to roll out to 40 locations by the end of the year.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council said it was continuing to assemble figures but there were 274 reports in relation to incidents involving some form of injection from the beginning of September until November 5.
Recently, in a chat with The Standard, London students voiced their safety fears amid the surge of reported spiking incidents.
