The truth about the festival needle-spiking panic | Now You Know | The Spinoff

Festival organisers and police have told the NZ Herald that rumours of needle-spiking are “unsubstantiated” and “festival medics have confirmed there is no evidence of attendees being injected.” The rumours spread widely through word-of-mouth and messaging apps. When it comes to preventing the spread of rumours one expert told The Spinoff, "It sounds so obvious, but slow down and think" and "be comfortable with complexity: some of the most successful misinformation/disinformation is premised on a small bit of truth”. For example, in this case there is no evidence needle-spiking happened, but we do know that needle-spiking can happen. It’s just very rare, because it’s almost impossible to inject drugs into someone’s body without them noticing. Drink-spiking, however, is more common and by far the most common form of drink-spiking is with alcohol. thelevel.org.nz has more information on what to do to avoid drink-spiking and what to do if you think your drink has been spiked. Made with the support of NZ On Air.