Would have to disagree about rampant drink spiking. Did you or any of your friends have testing to determine that your drinks were spiked? Most people (women) refuse to believe that their incapacitation could be due to the amount and type of alcohol they have had to drink. IMO.
I can only speak of my experience and what I saw or knew about back in 1999 - 2002/03 in Perth. As I said, we were very aware of it & it happened to more than a few of us. As far as I know, no one ever reported it to authorities or attended emergency departments. As I also said, it was rampant & not only was being reported on in the media constantly, there were warnings on posters in pub/club toilets about it too. In the 2 incidences I wrote about that I believe my drink was spiked, I have no doubt at all that it was. The first time, I had attended a work function (no alcohol) met a friend for dinner (no alcohol) drove my car home & walked to the nightclub. I ordered 1 beer which I didnt finish, then switched to a vodka soda. It was after this drink that I felt strange & had a sudden urge to flee. I realised upon descending the stairs of the nightclub that I wasnt going to be able to walk home so jumped into the waiting taxi. Within 10mins of that drink I was home in bed where I slept in excess of 24 hours. Upon waking, I felt spacey & disoriented & do not remember actually arriving home. I also had a full answering machine of messages from worried friends that I had slept through. At the time, I figured I must've have had a virus & it wasnt until the second time it happened did I make the connection on account of the way that I felt in the days after. On that occasion, a Sunday, I also hadn't had too much to drink as I had work the next day. I didnt make it & yet again I slept through numerous calls from work wondering where I was. The non drinker in our group that night told us that he had never seen anything like it so he brought us all to my house then stayed to watch us for several hours to make sure we were ok. Myself and the other female passed out in the car, 2 males passed out soon after arriving home & none of us recall leaving the nightclub. He had no idea what had happened and it was his words that I used when describing what a person looked like when they'd had their drink spiked, "possessed", which is what we concluded must have happened. Although I have several friends who claim this also happened to them, and I have no doubt that it did, there was only I other occasion that it happened whilst I was present in that moment & it was the immediate change of my girlfriends behaviour that made me suspect her drink spiking, so I got her straight out of the club and home. She went from sitting quietly having a conversation with me to jumping around like a lunatic, smashing glasses off the table and pushing anyone & everyone within arms reach away from her. I physically had to restrain her to move her closer to where a bouncer we knew from frequenting the club was standing and he grabbed her & carried her out. She punched him numerous times in the process and kicked at anyone else we passed. This is behaviour I have never seen her engage in prior to or since that night and I have known her in excess of 30 years. As soon as he put her down just inside the front door, she turned and launched herself across the counter of the girl working on the door/cloak room and attempted to grab hold of her. I'll never forget his face when he asked me "what the hell is wrong with her" as he dragged her outside, mainly because she headbutted him in the process and he had blood streaming from his nose. When I said "i think her drink was spiked" he turned to the door man & his exact words were "f. . K not again". He told me "she'll be alright but are you going to be ok with her" i told him "yeah, i think so". She hadn't had much to drink so I took her straight home. She tried to jump out of the taxi we got into as soon as it started to move so I asked him to lock the doors & not 2 minutes later she was passed out. The cab driver helped me carry her inside, where like me, she slept for the best part of the next 24 hours & woke up wondering what had happened and why she felt so out of sorts. Her last memory was sitting speaking with me in the club & it wasnt until she went back & the bouncer confirmed what I had told her about her actions that night, that she believed it because it was so out of character. Now, as had been the experience of myself & my friends in that we were ok after these incidents, I think the general consensus about drink spiking at the time, certainly amongst the people I knew anyway, was that medical attention was usually unnecessary. I did not witness any suspected drink spiking of people who had consumed alot of alcohol beforehand so I dont know how that may have influenced the outcome or any decision to seek help.
However, on the contrary, had I been witness to a friend with persistent uncontrolled vomiting or the like consistent with having consumed too much alcohol, I would be inclined to assume that they were suffering from alcohol poisoning & would be far more likely to have immediately taken them to a hospital where at the very least, they could have been monitored to ensure that didn't pass out & asphyxiate on their vomit in their sleep, they could have received something to make them stop vomiting & they would be quickly rehydrated via drip as they would probably have needed to stop purging anyway.
So, Justified, whilst it is absolutely your prerogative to not believe me when I tell you thats exactly what happened and the sole cause on each occasion was our drinks were spiked & you are entitled to assume it was more than likely that we were just drunk, I can 100% categorically assure you without a doubt, that was not the case at all. I might also suggest that if most people simply pass out after drink spiking, perhaps this may be the major factor contributing to you having seen few true cases come through emergency & be far closer to the truth of the matter as opposed to incidences of drink spiking simply being a myth. Please keep in mind too that the report you referenced was based on 18mths of results from 2 places, published in 2009. Not only is that data at least 6-8years later than the years Im speaking about, it also doesnt include any data from the closest hospital to both Claremont/ Subiaco & the place that anyone in the Western Suburbs would have routinely attended, namely SCGH. Nor is the data from the alternate hospital you might attend from Cottesloe, namely Fremantle. I'm sure your data is accurate for that timeframe & locations but Id put money on it not reflecting in the slightest what was actually occurring in local pubs/clubs late 90's early 00's & certainly not the experience of all the hospitals either. I'd also wonder if you were actually working ED at that time too? Just MO based on personal experience & what I know to be the reality of the time. Apologies for the lengthy, somewhat irrelevant post.
On a side note, might I throw Chloroform into the mix perhaps? Connection to both printing and a quick way to subdue a victim.
