Ranvir Singh has shared her terrifying experience of having a drink spiked at a bar.
The 47-year-old appeared on Good Morning Britain during a segment focusing on the dangers of spiking and discussed her own experience.
Singh told a visibly shocked Susanna Reid and Ed Balls how she had drunk three-quarters of a glass of wine at most when she suddenly felt ‘everything started to swim’.
Singh told the ITV studio the incident happened over a decade ago, when she was working in Manchester before moving to London.
‘It was 7:30 in the evening, my first drink,’ said Singh. ‘I think it might have been a work thing. I can’t remember what I was there for.
‘Nobody else had arrived. I went to the bar, bought one glass of wine as you would do. I probably drank half of it or maybe three-quarters.
‘I thought, I’m going to nip to the loo before everyone else arrives. Before I even got to the loo downstairs, everything just started to swim. Everything.’
She continued: ‘I remember feeling my legs go. I went downstairs, and by the time I got upstairs, I couldn’t hear anything. My hearing had gone.
‘I remember just coming up the stairs and looking down the bar and thinking, I can’t go back down there.’
Singh went on to say that she left the bar immediately and ‘can’t remember’ what happened the rest of the evening.
She told an open-mouthed Reid: ‘I can’t even remember getting home.’
How to tell if your drink has been spiked
University of Pretoria pharmacology professor, Duncan Cromarty, told Africa Check that the myth ice will sink in a spiked drink is untrue. He did say that there may be some dust or flecks visible on ice immediately after drugs have been added to a drink.
He added that ‘some of the less water-soluble drugs’ might cause ‘murkiness, or cloudiness’ in the drink, but this will normally dissipate quickly and might not be visible in a dark room.
The manufacturers of rohypnol (one of the most well-known ‘date rape’ drugs used) became aware of how their product was being abused, and changed the formulation from a white pill to a caplet that, when added to light or clear liquids, turns them a blue colour.
Being vigilant of what the symptoms are can’t stop you being spiked, recognising them early can give you extra time to get help.
According to the NHS, symptoms experienced by people whose drinks have been spiked include:
- dizziness
- difficulty in walking
- confusion, especially the next day or after waking up
- nausea (feeling sick) or vomiting (being sick)
- hallucinations (seeing things which are not there)
- tiredness
- visual problems, for example, blurred vision
- paranoia (a feeling of fear or distrust of others)
- amnesia (loss of memory) especially about things that have happened recently
The Lorraine presenter went on to say that she didn’t report the spiking incident at the time, explaining: ‘Weirdly, this was about 12, 13 years ago. It didn’t occur to me to report it.
‘My female producer just said, oh it happened to me. So it’s amazing how common it is.’
Given that around 60% of drink spiking crimes aren’t reported, it’s difficult to understand the full scale of the problem.
The most common illegal drugs used to spike drinks are GHB, ketamine, and benzodiazepines such as valium and rohypnol.
The reason these are so regularly used is because they don’t produce a taste or smell, making it hard for the victim to know they’ve been spiked until it’s too late.
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV1.
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