Experts have issued a warning over a “worrying” new spiking trend after a young woman became the target of an alleged attack at a British festival.
Chloe Hammerton, 26, was at the Isle of Wight Festival on Saturday with her partner Natasha Ward and brother William when she collapsed after puffing on a stranger’s vape.
Chloe, a trainee paramedic, claimed she became “instantly unwell” after a man approached and encouraged her to try his e-cigarette.
Shocking photos from the alleged incident show Chloe lying on the ground, unable to speak or move her body.
A 51-year-old has since been arrested on suspicion of administering a poison or noxious substance with intent, BBC News has reported.
“We got to the festival about 2 o’clock but it took a turn for the worse when I took a puff of a vape from a stranger,” she claimed during an appearance on Good Morning Britain Monday.
“I felt instantly unwell, it was almost like the world went into slow motion, I had pins and needles throughout my body and I collapsed to the floor.
“Within a minute I was unconscious.”
Chloe went on to explain she suffered a seizure, lost control of her bladder and was vomiting, stating: “My entire body shut down.”
“I don’t have any history of seizures, it was the scariest thing I have ever been through,” she explained.
A spokesperson for the Isle of Wight Festival said it operated a “zero tolerance policy” on drugs and had “robust systems in place to deal with anyone who attempts to do so”.
“This was an isolated incident dealt with quickly and professionally by all teams on site and no further reports of this nature have been recorded,” the spokesperson told The Sun.
“Our event medical team employs a wide range of appropriately qualified healthcare professionals.
“These fully-trained individuals work 24 hours a day across our medical facilities on site.”
After the incident, Natasha took to Facebook claiming she was left “begging, screaming for help” when Chloe collapsed, and described it as “one of the worst 24 hours of my life”.
“Chloe doesn’t vape or smoke, and has never done drugs in her life, but was duped into taking a puff in this situation,” she wrote.
What is vape spiking?
Despite Natasha, and many others, admitting they have “never heard of ‘vape spiking’”, Chloe’s experience sadly isn’t rare.
The first reports of the act – which involves lacing an e-cigarette with an unknown substance to administer it into a victim’s body without their consent – first emerged in 2019.
But now experts are warning “it’s on the rise”.
Dawn Dines of campaign group Stamp Out Spiking said vape spiking was a “hugely unreported crime”.
“It’s happening on our streets every day,” she told BBC News.
“All of these different flavours – it’s so easy to ask someone ‘why don’t you try my blueberry vape?’
“That’s as quickly as you can catch somebody.”
Dr Amir Khan, a GP based in northern England, described vape spiking as a “worrying trend on the rise” and stressed it was important to raise awareness about this new threat.
New spiking threat angers
Many women have reacted in horror to the latest spiking trend, which follows the emergence of needle spiking in the UK and Australia.
“OMG – SERIOUSLY? Now we have to look out for vapes?” one frustrated woman wrote on TikTok.
“I’m glad she’s OK, this is totally new, she had no way of knowing,” another stressed.
As another raged: “We’re not safe anywhere. If our drinks aren’t spiked, we’ll just be injected or poisoned. No body cares, we’re just women.”
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