Doubts cast on Tuam spiked drinks story by top Garda

By TONY GALVIN SPIKED drinks are mostly an urban myth and the drug people need be concerned about, especially when it comes to young people, is the alcohol in the drinks themselves. This was the message from Chief Supt Donal O Cualáin to the members of the Joint Policing Committee for Co Galway, which met on Monday. Chief Supt O Cualáin was responding to a claim made by Cllr Tom McHugh that two young women who arrived at his Tuam hotel in a disorientated state were the victims of spiked drinks in a Galway nightclub. [private] The Chief Superintendent told the meeting that spiked drinks were 'very, very rare,' and concern should be directed towards the way young people were consuming alcohol, especially spirits. He warned that spirits were being consumed at such a rate by some young people that they became intoxicated very quickly. This type of consumption, and not drugs such a Rohypnol being slipped into drinks, was the real culprit when it came to blackouts and disorientation. He made his comments in response  to a concern raised by Cllr Tom McHugh over the incident which occurred at his hotel in Tuam. Cllr McHugh told the meeting that two young ladies arrived at the Ard Rí House Hotel recently at 5.30 am. They were in a confused condition and thought they were somewhere in Galway City. They didn't know how they had arrived in Tuam. The hotel night porter allowed them sit in the foyer and when catering staff arrived at 7 am they were provided with refreshments. 'They didn't know how they got there. They had no money or phones and were disorientated and distressed,' he said. He added that a local taxi man who was familiar with such cases from a previous occupation, informed him that he had no doubt the girls' drinks had been spiked. He had come across this on a number of occasions. He said the two girls were fine now but didn't want to talk about their experience and a former Garda had left him in no doubt that the girls' drinks had been spiked. Chief Supt Donal O'Cualáin said he could not discuss individual cases, and sometimes in these matters the Gardai were not the first people called. However, he said that statistics did not back up claims that the spiking of drinks was as common as sometimes suggested. 'While I'm not saying it does not happen, it is very, very rare. The biggest culprit is abuse of alcohol, and spirits in particular,' he said. He added that the way a lot of young people consumed alcohol now left them in an intoxicated state very quickly and the drugs which should be worrying people were not those supposedly slipped into drinks but the one that is there already, alcohol. Cllr McHugh said that while the incident at the Ard Rí was unsettling, he did not like to think that young girls could find themselves in such a situation. He added that there should be more effort made to educate young people to the dangers posed by excessive alcohol consumption as well as an awareness of how vulnerable they can make themselves to other risks, however rare. [/private]