Police say it's hard to detect, prosecute or even track drink spiking in New Zealand and can't provide figures for the prevalence of it.
But data from the country's sexual assault testing clinics say at least 12 percent of patients in the past year have been drug-assisted sexual assaults.
Simon* believes he had his drink spiked in Wellington on a night out.
"I woke up at 7am the next morning in a dairy on Manners St with no clothes on, apart from a shirt and my undies," he said. "It was just kind of full panic, to be honest."
He was in a club with a friend enjoying a night out but his behaviour abruptly and uncharacteristically changed before completely blacking out.
"I still can't remember those parts like getting up on a table and then being kicked out, and then pulling people off the street to kiss," Simon said.
He still doesn't know what happened to him that night. He went to the police who were supportive but said it would be almost impossible to find out.
"Police's main focus was just that I was as safe as I could be through the night and that finding someone and holding them accountable was out of the question."
In the wake of the Mama Hooch trial, Newshub went to the police to obtain figures to try and get a picture of the prevalence of drink spiking in New Zealand. However, an Official Information Act request was refused - with police saying it was too hard to distinguish whether drink spiking and then sexual offences occurred.
Police could only give figures for disabling, stupefying and poison charges and in all of New Zealand, they only had court action for three people in 2021, five in 2022 and two so far this year.
"I believe it happens a lot more often than we have recorded," Det Insp David Kirby said.
Det Insp Kirby, who heads up the sexual assault division at Police, said drink spiking is one of the hardest crimes to detect and prosecute.
In the Mama Hooch case, the Jaz brothers' offending went on for at least three years - likely longer - when the two women came forward in 2018.
Police searched its database and found 38 occurrences linked to Mama Hooch. But nothing flagged up in the system before that.
Health New Zealand Canterbury also has no data. If someone that'd been spiked turned up to the emergency department, it would be classified as "intoxication", "adverse drug reaction" or "overdose".
Newshub also received data from the country's Sexual Abuse Assessment and Treatment services which showed of all patients that were examined in the past 11 months, at least 12 percent were drug-assisted sexual assaults - far higher numbers than the police.
Police said changes may need to be made.
"The extent of the problem, I guess, is hard to determine," Det Insp Kirby said.
Simon said changes definitely need to be made.
"To not have substantial data to know how, when or what is scary because for all I know the person who spiked my drink could be on the dance floor this weekend."
He said that thought and his experience has changed his behaviour and attitude towards going out forever.
*Not his real name.
If you have witnessed or experienced sexual harassment or assault and would like to speak to someone, you could call the HELP support service.
- Auckland: (09) 623 1700 or visit helpauckland.org.nz
- Wellington: (04) 801 6655 or visit wellingtonhelp.org.nz
