A Dundee nightclub owner says he is ‘proud’ of student promoters highlighting extra measures implemented to prevent spiking in his club.
Session Street’s Afrobeats have introduced new procedures in their club in response to allegations made in recent weeks of spiking in Dundee.
It comes after posts circulating on social media suggested a customer had been injected with a drug at Captain’s Cabin at the weekend.
New measures
Owner Howard Airhumwunde said that upon entry to the night time venue, customers will now be thoroughly searched with a metal detector.
The club is now also offering cling film for customers to cover their drinks at the bar, as well as disposing of any drinks left unattended in the venue.
Howard said: “We’ve got procedures in place regarding the spiking all over the UK.
“At the moment, we’ve not had such encounters at our venue but we take the safety of our customers paramount.
“We’ve introduced a series of measures to prevent it occurring at all in the first place.
“So we opened on Tuesday where we introduced the metal detector to body scan everybody coming through the building including staff.
“We also try to encourage our customers to not leave drinks unattended too.
He added: “For the safety of our customers and staff as well, as a business owner you want to carry out every measure to make sure everybody in your venue is safe.
“I think every public venue should do their bit, the customers as well. If everyone plays their bit, the world would be a better place.
“I believe that every other venue in Dundee tries their best to make sure their customers and clients are safe, you just have to move with the changes, if people are changing their movement on spiking, we need to change our tactics as well.”
Students promoting measures
Dundee student club night promoters ‘Kolektiv‘, have gained attention on social media after posting about the extra measures being taken to tackle spiking at their event on Friday at Afrobeats.
In a post on Instagram they said: “All involved in the making of this event are very aware of the spiking reports which have been echoed across Scotland recently.
“These incidents are extremely concerning and have absolutely no place in any social circumstance whatsoever.
“Unfortunately, we must deal with the reality of the situation, but in doing so, we want to bring awareness to the measures we will be introducing for this event.”
The promoters of the club night, which also includes Napier University Techno Society (NUTS) and Aberdeen’s Rumble collective, have also highlighted their presence at the event and have encouraged customers who feel unsafe to ask for help.
Afrobeats owner Howard said he is pleased to see promoters taking a proactive approach to highlight measures being taken to keep customers safe.
Howard said: “I feel proud with all the promoters using our venues because they are in the forefront, making sure everybody is safe and also because most of them are from the student community as well.
“They want to make sure that every event is carried out in a safe manner and everybody who attends the event is safe and happy as well so I’m very proud of them.”
Scots in favour of change
The owner also highlighted that customers were in favour of the extra measures introduced at the club on Tuesday night.
He added: “From our event on Tuesday, nobody complained.
“Everybody that came in was impressed that they had to wait an extra five minutes to be searched and make sure everything is safe, they seemed happy about it.”
Meanwhile, across the country, Scots have been backing petitions to prevent spiking in night-time venues.
A petition to make it a legal requirement for nightclubs to thoroughly search guests on entry has already gained over 150,000 signatures while a newer petition asking the Government to fund free drink spiking test kits for all bars has gained almost 10,000 signatures.