According to a new study recently published in the “Psychology of Violence” journal, drink spiking is a growing concern on campuses. It seems that more and more students are falling prey to the practice, ingurgitating drugs that are placed in their beverages without their consent.

Some Do It for Fun

After being interviewed on the reasons that could lead a person to spike the drink of another, the students answered that sometimes they do it for fun.

There are, apparently, lots of motivations for drugging a person without her or his consent. One of them is the fact that the peers want a certain individual to lighten up and enjoy a party. Others resort to drink spiking in order to give a shy person the opportunity of “letting loose.”

However, the truth is that most of the times the victims of drink spiking end up being abused by the persons that interfered with their drinks. Furthermore, only one in five people that reportedly had their drink spiked with an unknown substance was a male. This means that four in five female college students fall prey to the practice.

No Matter the Reason, this Kind of Behavior Is Wrong

Even if a party crowd appears to be boring, there is no excuse for inserting a drug into somebody’s beverage without their explicit consent. The practice could still be considered an offense, an attempt at violating a person’s free will and freedom of choice.

“Even if a person is drugging someone else simply “for fun” with no intent of taking advantage of the drugged person, the drugger is still putting a drug in someone else’s body without their consent – and this is coercive and controlling behavior,” stated the author of the study.

The Study Has Its Limitation

The problem with this kind of studies is the fact that they can’t be 100 percent reliable. The sample on which they are based on could be lying, altering the reality, or misinterpreting the effects of the beverages they consumed.

Students often engage in drinking without knowing that some over the counter medication could interact with the alcoholic beverages that they are consuming. Others may simply underestimate the potency of some of the drinks, blaming the effects on drink spiking rather than alcohol tolerance.

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