'It is a major worry for students': New campaign to warn students of spiking to be launched

Minister for Further Education Simon Harris has said an information campaign to raise awareness among students and young people of the risk of spiking is to be launched.

It was reported today that 120 incidents of spiking were reported to police in Northern Ireland so far this year.

The last few months has seen a rise in such incidents with worrying reports of injection spiking's, along with drinks being spiked.

Speaking to reporters today Minister Harris said that he spoke to the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) yesterday about the ongoing issue.

“It is a major worry for students and they discussed that with me yesterday and what we have agreed to do is to work together… to put in place an information campaign.

“But there’s also now a growing and very worrying phenomenon around spiked by needle.

“I think the UK has seen quite a few cases of it now and it’s very much beginning to take hold here", he said adding that there is a lot of new information emerging about that all the time.

Looking forward to working with @TheUSI on this. Worrying development which needs to be urgently addressed. Thanks to students for discussing with me https://t.co/utNDbdNtJn

— Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) November 5, 2021

Minister Harris said he will be speaking to the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee about the issue in the coming days with the awareness campaign likely to be launched in the next couple of weeks.

Details of how to report any incident can be found on An Garda Síochána website.