People do not have to be "lying" merely because they are mistaken or caught up in a very common type of syndrome in which people believe things that are simply not true.
I realize that listening to scientists is not popular these days, but...
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/its-catching/202202/the-british-needle-spiking-panic
Implausibility and a Lack of Evidence
It is important to remember that we are NOT discussing drink spiking, but attacks involving syringes. One reason for skepticism is the range of symptoms reported, summarised in the Daily Express soon after reports began to emerge, under the headline ‘Key Signs You’ve Been Spiked.’ They include feeling ‘drunker,’ loss of balance, vision problems, lower inhibition, confusion, nausea, vomiting, and loss of consciousness. In other words, the symptoms of being needle-spiked are very similar to being intoxicated.
Many victims claimed they only had a few drinks and were not drunk. However, an Australian study of suspected incidents of drink spiking found that self-reports of alcohol consumption are often unreliable. One 17-year-old girl was taken to hospital after having only one glass of vodka. However, on further questioning, she ‘remembered’ having beer and whisky. The study also analyzed the blood and urine of patients who presented at hospital emergency departments. Of 97 patients, none had traces of a sedative in their systems (Quigley et al., 2009).
Another red flag is the use of a syringe to administer the drug. Compared to slipping something into a drink, injecting a victim carries a much higher risk of being caught. Not only that, as Professor Adam Winstock of the Global Drugs Survey notes, effectively administering an injection in a dark club through the victim’s clothes would be very challenging. Keeping the needle in the victim long enough to inject the drug would also be difficult (Brown and Rahman-Jones). London-based forensic toxicologist John Slaughter says that while not impossible, it would be very difficult to inject someone with a syringe without them knowing. Guy Jones, a senior chemist at The Loop – an organisation devoted to drug safety, concurs and notes that it would be much easier to spike a drink than to stick someone with a needle at a night club (Turnnidge, 2022).
Conspicuously, Jason Harwin of the UK’s National Police Chiefs Council observes that not a single case of alleged needle spiking has ended in a prosecution – despite nightclubs often having video that can be checked. Dr Adrian Boyle, head of emergency medicine for the UK’s National Health Service told a government inquiry on January 19, 2022, that in most cases when suspected spike victims were examined at emergency rooms, their bodies were found to be clear of sedatives. In cases where drugs were found, they were often prescriptions. In one instance, GHB was found in a sample, but it would be very difficult to inject as it is a viscous liquid (Topping, 2022).
The Social Context
The needle spiking epidemic bears all the hallmarks of a social panic that reflect current fears. Throughout history, societies pass through periods of perceived threats by sinister forces. Often there is a grain of truth in the accounts, but the threat is grossly exaggerated such as the Communist scare of the 1950s. At other times, the evil-doer is entirely imaginary such as accusations of witches and bewitchment in Salem.
Are the Australian researchers lying? Are the UK police lying? Is it a big conspiracy to cover up what is going on?
https://fullfact.org/crime/spiking-by-needle-injection/
Experts say it’s unlikely spiking by needle could be done easily on a wider scale
With the investigations into the attacks still ongoing and new reports appearing frequently via social media, there’s very little we can say for sure about the specifics, but experts seem to agree that while it is plausible that spiking by injection could be carried out by an individual or very small group, it’s very unlikely that it’s being easily replicated on a wider scale.
To get a better idea of what could be happening, we spoke to Guy Jones, senior scientist at The Loop, a non-profit organisation focused on drug safety, and John Slaughter, senior forensic toxicologist at Analytical Services International, which provides toxicological services, including forensic toxicology which is used to identify legal and illegal drugs and poisons.
Both said that the recent cases were the first time they had heard reports of needles being used in spiking cases, and agreed that while it was certainly plausible that one or a very small number of attackers could have attempted to use needles to spike victims in bars and nightclubs, it’s unlikely that perpetrators could replicate the method easily on a wider scale.
Mr Slaughter said: “If someone is jabbed with a syringe then their reflex action is going to be to move away within a second or two.
“The opportunity for someone to actually inject enough drug from that syringe to have the effect, I would think, is fairly low. I’m not saying it’s absolutely impossible, I'm just saying, in my opinion, it's unlikely.”
He added, however, that the fact the chances of effectively spiking someone with a needle are low doesn’t mean people aren’t being deliberately jabbed by sharp objects while on a night out.
Many of the reports made on social media show what appear to be puncture wounds concentrated in the upper arm, back and thigh.
Mr Jones said: “All of this is against the backdrop of ‘why not just add it [drugs] to a drink?’ You’ve got to deliver this drug by injection, clearly that needs to be done in as subtle a way as possible, and so here’s a big disadvantage compared to drink spiking—you’ve got to stab someone with a needle.
“That introduces a very significant element of risk and a massive reduction in plausible deniability for somebody who is administering a spiking agent.”
Mr Jones and Mr Slaughter also said it was very unlikely that GHB, the drug most commonly associated with drink spiking, could be used in an attack involving a syringe due to the relatively large volume of liquid needed to effectively drug someone. An attacker would either have to use a very large needle, which would be immediately noticeable to most people, or would have to inject very steadily over a longer period of time—potentially up to 30 seconds—while remaining undetected in a busy nightclub or bar.
The fact it would be very difficult to administer GHB at a high enough quantity to incapacitate a victim means a would-be attacker could use a different type of drug such as a type of benzodiazepine. GHB occurs naturally in the body, which often makes detecting it after a spiking incident very difficult, but benzodiazepines are far easier to detect.
However, Mr Slaughter explained injectable benzodiazepines are not available to the public. There are so-called “designer benzodiazepines”, sold as street drugs such as diazepam, which could also be processed to create injectable spiking solutions but this would be very difficult for someone with no specialist knowledge to do.
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There's quite a bit more investigation that's been done on this subject, but I doubt you care to read any of it anyway.
Are the experts all lying, Mr. Ferret?
No, I don't think anyone is lying. I do believe it is possible for people to be mistaken, particularly in a social context where people are first led to believe things like "there are satanists running daycare centers" or "elites are kidnapping children to extract drugs from them" and other things that people mistakenly believe, and indeed find evidence to support.
The needle spiking thing has been going on for a while now, and there has yet to be a single person who succumbed to becoming a victim under the influence of whatever agent it is you think is being injected.
Morgellon's patients aren't lying either. That doesn't mean they are not misled or mistaken.
One other weird aspect of moral panics is that people become positively hostile when the proposed "thing that is going on" is challenged.
= new reply since forum marked as read
