October 21, 2021 4.08 pm This story is over 30 months old

Four cases of drink spiking in Lincoln this month, no injection reports

The issue has been called an ‘epidemic’
By Local Democracy Reporter

Lincolnshire Police said that four cases of drink spiking have been reported to them after incidents in Lincoln so far this month.

The four reports were for drink spiking rather than needle injection, which has also allegedly become a growing issue in bars and nightclubs.

It comes as a social media campaign has emerged calling for a boycott of venues on Wednesday, October 27 to raise awareness of the issue and to demand change.

Girls Night In Lincoln was set up this week to join the national boycott, and has amassed close to 1,000 followers already.

People have been anonymously sharing their stories of when they believe they were spiked on a night out, and the account has been posting about what they feel needs to happen to combat the issue.

There are calls for greater repercussions for abusers, as well as training for nightclub staff and a response from government, as a petition asking for thorough searches at nightclub entries has reached over 150,000 signatures.

A spokesperson for the Girls Night In account told The Lincolnite that they hope to “create better safeguards” and want to see the issue tackled “more seriously”.

“After a year of significant attention in the media about the violence subjected to women this is another movement that highlights the severity of this issue. Although spiking impacts more women than men it is still a universal issue regardless of gender.”

Venues across the city have been implementing a number of procedures to try to address the issues surrounding drink spiking, such as The Strait and Narrow which has reiterated that it was the first bar in the world to run the Ask For Angela scheme.

Home Lincoln and its sister businesses Moka, Bierkeller and Void have introduced testing kits to see if you have a spiked drink, as well as toppers to put over drinks and block any potential spiking.