Support for victims

The Drugrape organisation is the roofie foundation at www.roofie.com that is run by Graham Rhodes for the benefit of victims of drink spiking. Visit their website for more information and statistics that are available. You can call the roofie foundation on 0800 783 2980

Your own GP should be able to provide details of counselling services available locally. Contact your GP - Visit; Details of doctors' surgeries.

Support for victims is seen as an important part of aftercare and along with the need for counselling might be many questions relating to ‘what actually happened’. If you, or you know someone that has been spiked they may well just want to know whether they were deliberately drugged or not. This aspect is viewed as just as important as the investigation of the actual offence.

If you seek answers then nothing prevents you from getting your own tests done without having to report the incident and often provides good peace of mind. Ideally blood and urine tests should be obtained within 12 but no more than 24hrs as most drugs leave the system very quickly. But all is not lost if you’ve spent time deliberating over reporting the offence, which is very common.

You can still have hair sampling done at www.surescreen.co.uk and technology has come a long way in respect of this process. It will cost around £99 and can detect the smallest quantity of drugs up to three months and even up to three years if your hair is long enough. The process is unaffected by hair dye etc. but be prepared to discuss any recreational drug use if this is applicable (we are thinking about such discussion with parents here!).

Support is seen as very important as you can quickly set up a situation that might lead to isolation, loneliness, anxiety, withdrawal or depression. It is very unhealthy not to deal with this situation as quickly as possible whether you decide to report it to the police or not. Of course, without the information the police cannot build up a picture of trends, but the final choice is your own.