Published
Mon, Jun 13, 2022, 12:37
- We spoke with two women who say they were recently spiked at Berghain and Sisyphos.
Resident Advisor has spoken to two people who say they were spiked with needles in Berlin clubs.
On May 27, DJ and producer Zanias spoke publicly about her ordeal via Instagram, saying she "had a brush with death in a needle spiking incident" at Berghain on Monday that week. She told RA that more than 30 people have contacted her since the post with similar stories. Among them were ten cases of drink spiking and seven of needle spiking, two of which allegedly occurred at Berghain.
"Phase Fatale was playing the closing set when I suddenly collapsed, but I have no recollection of anything that happened from 20 minutes prior to this," she said. Her friends helped piece together the sequence of events. They told her she was carried backstage, taken downstairs in the lift and to a sofa in the cloakroom area until she became responsive again.
"As soon as I started to come round, we were escorted out of the club," she said. "I realised I didn't have my house keys because my sister had the coat check token for my bag. The bouncers wouldn't let my friend back in to find her. She finally received my call and came straight out." During this time, Zanias said her friend was "freaking out because he was convinced he'd just watched me die while trying to argue with bouncers to let us stay."
RA asked Berghain about the bouncers ejecting Zanias from the club, but received no reply. When RA mentioned the situation to Berlin Club Commission's Lutz Leichsenring, he said Berghain was aware that the situation hadn't been dealt with in the best way. Zanias said she was "so freaked out by the bouncers that I'd done something wrong" that she was afraid to go to the police. "I worried they'd be as accusatory as the bouncers."
She added: "I didn't realise we'd been kicked out because I collapsed, so I imagined I must have done something very wrong." Zanias had her drink with her all night so she couldn't work out what led her to collapse. "I had taken some ketamine but not in any that would have caused that to happen," she said.
She said it was only when Berghain called her the following day and told her to look for a needle mark that she realised what had happened.
"They said they'd heard of cases like this so I should check my body for marks," she said. A photograph of the jab mark was sent to a doctor friend who said it was probably caused by a needle. Suspect spiking substances like scopolamine can be detected for up to 24 hours, fentanyl for up to 72 hours and GHB for up to 12 hours.
But by the time Zanias spoke with Berghain, neither of these substances would have been detectable. "If bouncers must remove punters the way they removed me, they could at least suggest going to hospital for a test. That suggestion would've made a world of difference to me."
Zanias suspects she was spiked with scopolamine because of symptoms including "a weird sense of losing my identity." She added: "It stays in the hair for three months so I am looking for a forensics service that can test this for me."
There has been growing uncertainty about claims of spiking in clubs. According to Leichsenring, medical experts told Berlin Club Commission that there's a lack of medical evidence—anyone jabbed with a needle would feel it and would bruise. Zanias told RA she didn't feel the needle and didn't bruise.
RA spoke with London-based dental surgeon and medical aesthetics specialist Dr. Avika Lakhani. She said it's possible to jab someone in a club without them knowing. "A very small 33 or 34 gauge needle will not be fully felt," she said. "There is 0.001 percent chance of a bruise happening as a result of using a tiny needle to inject someone anywhere on the arm or buttocks."
Venues in Berlin are caught between a rock and a hard place, according to Leichsenring. Strict anti-drug rules in Germany means venues are at "high risk of being shut down" when associated with causality cases. But he said the Club Commission is working "in collaboration with organisations like Sonar Berlin," which focuses on safety in nightlife, to promote harm reduction and train staff in venues across the city.
But controversial door policies that throw people out for seeming too inebriated are the antithesis of harm reduction and jeopardise the possibility of accumulating evidence, warns Zanias.
A separate incident took place the weekend prior on May 14 at Sisyphos. This time, there was medical evidence confirming a needle was used to spike the victim. This is because Sisyphos staff called an ambulance crew that verified this. Lou (not her real name) was allegedly spiked by a man. Her friends were able to describe him to bouncers after staff called her an ambulance. They said they managed to find him in the venue but didn't find any evidence on him.
But Lou said evidence was found when paramedics in the ambulance carried out an immediate swab test and verified she had been attacked with a needle.
She said the police arrived at the scene with the ambulance and she reported the incident to them. She said she went to the police station alone at a later date and was told "there have been multiple reports about spiking incidents" in Berlin. She is now in the process of making her report official.
About the incident, she told RA the last thing she remembers is being at the back left of the club "where there's more room to dance" when a man asked her for a lighter then returned to his friends. "As the group walked past me, I felt a slap on my upper right thigh. I felt a burning sensation—like you feel after a vaccination."
After telling her friend, they immediately went to check in the toilets and found a palm-sized swollen red mark that looked like a bee sting on the top right of her thigh, just below the hip bone.
"About five minutes later, I started to lose my memory. My hand started to feel numb, my whole body was shaking. I told my friend 'please don't let me leave with anyone, stay with me'—and that's the last thing I remember."
Lou's friends helped her piece together what happened after that. She said the four of them approached security and were taken to a first-aid room where they waited for an ambulance. Later, while waiting several hours for a blood test at the hospital, Lou became anxious. "Apparently date rape drugs can't be detected after three hours, so I was frustrated they took so long. They checked for alcohol but I wasn't drinking. They said they couldn't identify anything definitively."
According to information relayed to Lou via a Sisyphos employee, plans are in place to build a task force for a safer experience at the venue. A Sisyphos spokesperson told RA that the venue didn't want to provide a response at this time.
Whether partygoers overindulge or are spiked, what more can venues do to ensure the greater health and safety of their attendees?
"If spiking is indeed becoming more common and dangerous, then the laws about casualties at clubs need to change," said Zanias. "Strict controls are there to protect people, but if they're impeding harm reduction then they're not actually doing what they're supposed to do."
Leichsenring told RA that more open dialogue is needed around the spiking situation. The Berlin Club Commission has put a call out for people to engage in a discussion about the spiking climate and steps that can be taken to resolve the situation. It's taking place on Thursday, June 16th. Find out more below.