A regional Victorian nightclub has begun offering free lids to its patrons in an effort to prevent drink-spiking.
Warehouse Ballarat is taking the action after widespread reports of spiking incidents in the region dating back to last year.
Ash Ibraheim, who owns Warehouse Ballarat as well as almost a dozen venues around Victoria, said reports of spiking had never been so “rampant and repeated” as at they had been at the nightclub.
“I ended up driving a number of people to hospital. The toxicology wouldn’t show anything but you have to take things like this really seriously,” he said.
“Kids haven’t been out in quite a while and some have been insulated from 17 to 20. They haven’t had schoolies, formals, socials, and they haven’t had that proper education.
“The end goal is to deter culprits, and for us, it’s no different to [buying] a napkin.”
The lids, made of a recyclable foil, cost around the same price to bulk buy as a plastic straw. Ibraheim ordered an initial 5,000, and said about 500 were accepted by patrons in their first weekend in action.
A spokesperson for Victoria police said it was “unfortunate” there were people in the community who felt it was “their right” to spike someone’s drink, making patrons vulnerable to sexual assaults and robberies.
There were 16 drink spiking offences recorded in Victoria between January 2016 and 31 December 2020, but official numbers are likely to be much higher due to a lack of verifiable data.
“One difficulty we have is people need to get a blood or urine test as soon as possible to confirm they have drugs in their system,” the spokesperson said. “This needs to be done as soon as possible before the drug is flushed out of their system.”
National Drug Research Institute professor Nicole Lee questioned if disposable lids would prevent incidents from occurring, fearing it placed the onus on women to police their social experiences.
While the practice has become an increasingly common response to a drink spiking “epidemic” in the UK, it’s not “common practice” in Australian venues.
“Most drink spiking occurs with alcohol, adding extra alcohol into people’s drinks or asking for double shots rather than singles … [so] just covering a drink after it’s been poured is only going to deal with a very small proportion of drink spiking,” Lee said.
“There’s a bigger problem that needs to be dealt with and that is the people who are doing the spiking and preventing them from being in venues.”
Lee said lids “wouldn’t hurt” if they made people – particularly women – feel safer.
“But I wouldn’t like to see a situation where women can’t go out and enjoy themselves because they’re constantly worrying and covering their drinks,” she said.
“I wouldn’t like that to be the start of women having to focus on whether their drinks being spiked. They should just be able to go out and have a good time.”
Victoria police said licensees had an “inherent responsibility” to ensure they were providing a safe venue.
“Police encourage patrons to be vigilant with their drinks when visiting pubs and clubs, including never accepting drinks from strangers or leaving your own drink unattended,” the spokesperson said.
Marketing manager Jessica Meyer said she’d been buoyed that the lids had made many patrons, including women, “feel a lot more safe” while enjoying a night out.
“Hopefully other venues having these issues will take it onboard,” she said.
