Lara Berridge had just finished her A Levels when she was spiked on a night out in Sheffield. It was 6pm on a Monday night in June, not a time particularly associated with risk, but as soon Lara finished her second drink, she felt drowsy. “I could tell that something wasn\u2019t right \u2013 I felt so strange,” she says. “It felt like I couldn’t hold myself up. I kept falling asleep but I’d only had two Pornstar Martinis and nothing alcoholic before I went out.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I couldn\u2019t get outside when it was time for us to leave for another bar. My friend tried to help get me out, but I was deadweight. A boy tried to help carry me out but noticed that my nose was bleeding and that I\u2019d been vomiting. He could tell that something wasn\u2019t right \u2013 it wasn\u2019t standard drunkenness. My friends called an ambulance but when it arrived, the paramedics accused me of being \u2018on something\u2019.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That was the last thing Lara remembered before being taken to hospital. She had to spend the entire night alone due to COVID restrictions. Staff took her phone and refused to give it back until she was discharged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI woke up with stickers covering my entire body \u2013 I was so confused,” says Lara, 2I. “I immediately started asking questions. The doctors told me that \u2018I\u2019d been a bit silly, and that I\u2019d had a silly night\u2019. I asked to be drug tested, but they said because I was unresponsive when I came in, I couldn\u2019t consent, meaning they couldn\u2019t test me. They were really rude to me. They wouldn\u2019t let my dad in to see me, so he sat in the car park all night until I came out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAfterwards, my mum found it hard when I eventually started going out again. She had to get over that fear. It must be hard to get a call as a parent, saying your child is in hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n At the time Lara claims she was spiked, in 2021, police released data revealing 1,466 reports of spiking incidents that year. By 2023, that figure shot up to 6,732<\/a>, with 957 incidents relating to needle injections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sheffieldwire.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/image-5.png\")