Drink spiking test company boss encourages use

An Oxfordshire company has developed a product that can detect whether a drink has been spiked

A businessman is encouraging clubs and festivals to do more to tackle drink spiking.

Witney-based company Counter Spike has developed tester sticks called Spike Stixx, that change colour once dabbed with a drink that has been spiked.

The government is set to introduce a new law to make drink spiking a specific criminal offence in the King's Speech on Wednesday.

The Met police has said reports of spiking increased 13% in July to December 2023 compared with the same period in 2022 – after a quadrupling in recent years.

Work as a deterrent

The Oxfordshire company will launch the product in August and founder Mark Ackred has contacted festivals and universities across the UK to encourage them to use the sticks.

Mr Ackred said he was inspired to create the product after working at festivals and seeing that drink spiking was a problem.

He said: "It's becoming a real issue and currently the only things in existence are caps to put on your drinks but the reality is that it's not very difficult to take off a cap."

He admitted it would be impossible for the kits to be able to detect every drug but said that they do highlight the presence of Ketamine, Cocaine, MDMA, Methamphetamines and flunitrazepam, sold under the brand name Rohypnol.

Mr Ackred also believes Counter Spike would work as a deterrent for people who think about spiking a drink.

He said: "If you're in a bar and it says it is Counter Spike approved, the staff have been trained and the tests are available then that should deter the chance of someone wanting to do it."

The devices have been tested and are currently in production.

"I've been inundated with interest from parents whose kids are going to festivals," he added.

Mr Ackred is also planning to help improve education around spiking and says he would like to see it discussed with schoolchildren.

Spiking is the action of putting a drug into someone's drink, or into their body through another method, without their consent.

Police in England and Wales received, external 6,732 reports of spiking, including needle spiking, in the year ending April 2023.