Over 60 cases of drink and needle-spiking have been reported so far this year.
Image via Unsplash.comThere have been more cases of drink or needle-spiking this year than in all of 2021.
There were 64 cases in the first nine months of this year - compared to 57 in all of last year.
The number of people who've had their drinks spiked has almost doubled - with 40 this year. 24 people were also spiked with a needle between January and September.
Noeline Blackwell, from Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, says the crime shouldn't be tolerated by anyone.
Blackwell says it's a very new phenomenon where drugs are injected into someone to make them unwell or to paralyse them temporarily:
"It is concerning because when someone is spiking somebody else's drink what they're doing really is a form of poisoning them, they are secreting a substance into a person's body which they don't know or expect."
"It's not funny, it's not a prank, it is really harmful."
Image via Unsplash.comThe figures were revealed as a new online hub was established for people to log their experiences of being spiked in Ireland. So far, 80 people have posted details of being spiked since it was set up by Safe Gigs Ireland and the Cork Sexual Violence Centre.
A therapist with the Cork Sexual Violence Centre, Dola Twomey, said that some victims of spiking feel that they are not believed or taken seriously.
"The attitude is that they drank too much," she said.
