The Canberra Times returns our attention to the vexed issue of drink spiking. With reported incidents surging sixfold while at the same time no-one has been caught.
You would have thought that if rape or robbery was the motive in all of these incidents that there would be some forensic evidence?
It does make some people wonder if, perhaps, the issue du jour hasn’t, perhaps, in some cases, become an easy out for responsibility avoidance?
In any event Steve Pratt can be relied upon to inject some comic relief (a pratt-fall perhaps?)
Mr Pratt also suggested clubs should make tamper-proof drink lids so patrons could cover their drinks.
“Anything we can do to make the job of a drink spiker a little harder or less inconspicuous is important and necessary.”
I think he means “Anything we can do, no matter how disruptive, must be suggested to give a local politician something to talk about”.
This article is chockas with interesting quotes though, take this one which might be Hargreaves attributed but it’s hard to tell:
Sufficient penalties existed in the ACT for those caught.
Ummm, until we catch and convict someone (anyone?) on what do we base this statement?
More certainly of Hargreaves provenance was this:
Police Minister John Hargreaves said the increased number of reports was not necessarily an indication that drink spiking was suddenly rampant in Canberra.
He said government and police awareness programs had raised the profile of the crime and people were now more willing to report the problem.
“It is a measure of the success of those programs that community awareness of the problem is high and people are now prepared to talk about it. I would expect reported incidences to rise.”
So the success of these programs is measured in how many people report a crime? This is going to be fantastic news for governments the world over.
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