Amsterdam to speed up drug tests for spiking victims

Photo: Depositphotos.com
Photo: Depositphotos.com

Amsterdam police and local health board GGD are to work closely together to speed up processes to test the blood of people who think their drink has been spiked, mayor Femke Halsema and public health chief Shula Rijxman have agreed.

Experts say it is vital that a doctor is on hand to take blood and urine samples as quickly as possible after a possible incident, before all trace of the drug disappears.

The move was prompted by an increase in reports of drink spiking in bars and clubs. Halsema and Rijxman told councillors they ‘are aware of signals from people who have said they had been given spiked drinks without their knowledge’, broadcaster NOS reported.

There are no exact figures to go on because the police do not keep a separate tally of incidents, while emergency services rarely report cases to the Drugs Alert Team in the capital.

Reports of needle spiking, where substances are administered by injection, have so far not yielded any proof in the shape a positive blood samples.

Earlier this year a 31-year-old Georgian national was sentenced to five months in prison for jabbing a woman in the leg at a festival in The Hague. The syringe he was carrying had traces of heroine and cocaine, but DNA tests were not carried out to see if he had actually used the syringe on the victim.

Thank you for donating to DutchNews.nl.

We could not provide the Dutch News service, and keep it free of charge, without the generous support of our readers. Your donations allow us to report on issues you tell us matter, and provide you with a summary of the most important Dutch news each day.

Make a donation