Moves to prevent drinks spiking over the festive season

Last weekend saw some of the busiest nights of the year for Orkney’s pubs, and the county’s police officers were out in force to make sure that everyone had a safe and enjoyable festive night out.

Police have teamed up with Orkney’s alcohol counselling service OACAS to help prevent the spiking of drinks over the holiday weekend and beyond.

Christine Shearer of OACAS has been part of a team promoting the use of “spikeys” — specially designed bottle stoppers which aim to stop unknown substances being put into your drink without your knowledge. As they were out and about, last Friday, police officers were on hand with the bottle top devices

“We became a member of the Community Alcohol Partnership (CAP) last year, and we meet every six to eight weeks,” she explained.

“I know we’re never going to stop young folk from drinking, but it’s more about drinking responsibly. With the spikeys — I don’t think it’s a huge problem in Orkney, people getting their drinks spiked, but we know it has been happening.

“We got a few a couple of months ago and we’ve been distributing them at the Co-op and here at OACAS and they just flew off the shelves. So we’ve ordered more and we’ve been putting them to all the pubs about the town.”