Bouncers at a UK nightclub tried to confiscate the insulin pen of a woman suffering from Type 1 Diabetes amid increasing reports of injection spiking.
A woman, whose name has not been revealed, has slammed the owners of a popular Brighton club after the bouncers tried to confiscate her insulin pen. The victim was carrying the insulin pen, as well as a blood testing kit in her bag, as she suffers from Type 1 Diabetes. However, the security guards told her they cannot allow her inside the club with the kit.
As Daily Mail reports, the incident took place at Brighton’s Coalition club.
The bouncers were concerned about the woman’s medical equipment, as there is currently a surge of women claiming they were involuntarily injected with drugs or had their drinks spiked. Just last weekend, four women were allegedly drugged by injection and hospitalized afterward.
Meanwhile, UK police have reported approximately 200 drink spiking incidents over the past two months.
Commenting on the incident, the woman said:
“I was told that if I came in and I needed my insulin that staff could try and get it back to me in under 40 seconds. I tried to say that it’s dangerous for me to be without it, but they just kept saying that if I came in, it would have to be confiscated.
In a busy nightclub it would be impossible to guarantee that my medicine would give back to me in a matter of seconds. It was said to me that insulin pens are being used for spiking, but in my 20 years as a diabetic I have never been denied entry into anywhere because I have an insulin pen.
I’ve been on nights out in clubs since the needle spiking began, and I haven’t had my medication taken away from me.”
The woman said she felt “dismissed and discriminated against.”
Following the incident, a spokesman for The Pier Group, the owners of the Coalition club, said they are currently asking all customers with medical items involving needles to “voluntarily” hand them over. They made this move in a bid to tackle the ongoing spiking crisis.
The spokesperson stated:
“I would stress that this is a voluntary measure – it is most definitely not a condition of entry. Between Monday and Wednesday this week around 10-15 people have voluntarily handed us their equipment for safe keeping while in the club.
We have had, we think, two people refuse, in which case they were obviously permitted entry anyway. We’ve spoken to our door staff and if the customer in question was made to feel that handing in her devices was a condition of entry or if they were overzealous in dealing with her, then we apologise unreservedly – this was most definitely not our intention.
Under no circumstances would we be so thoughtless and inconsiderate as to attempt to ‘confiscate’ anything of this kind.”
