Is drink spiking illegal in Australia?
There is currently no separate offence category in any Australian jurisdiction for the act of spiking someone’s drink per se. Rather, the use of criminal laws to prosecute drink spiking depends on: • the state/territory in which the incident occurred; • the motivation of the person spiking the drink; • the type of substance used to spike the drink; and • the effects of the spiking. This means that there is some degree of flexibility in how an incident of drink spiking is recorded by police within each jurisdiction and how courts may interpret the law in relation to such incidents. It is recommended that each jurisdiction review its criminal law provisions in terms of their applicability to different forms of drink spiking and appropriate maximum penalties. Consideration of these issues could also be given by the Model Criminal Code Officers Committee (Parliament of Australia 1998).
