New legislation has passed its second stage in the Seanad, which will make drink spiking a stand-alone offence with a penalty of up to ten years in prison.
The anti-spiking campaign formed four months ago and has been led by members of Young Fine Gael on college campus throughout Ireland. Caolan Maguire is a member of the Young Fine Gael Executive and is also a native of Co Monaghan.
Speaking on this morning's Joe Finnegan Show, Caolan believes it is "extremely important" to make nights out for younger people as "safe as possible."
Through his work on the campaign, Caolan revealed that findings on the experiences of young people have been "harrowing." He added that drink spiking is not just an issue in larger cities, but also rural communities across the country.
"Spiking goes from adding either alcohol or other drugs to someone's drink without knowledge or consent, but also more sinister methods are used, including the use of syringes," explained Caolan.
"We've heard reports of bar tenders sometimes spiking, so this can be quite a difficult thing to avoid on a night out. The thing that stood out to me was that even if you're being incredibly responsible on a night out, this can still happen to you, you can still be a victim of spiking , which was very shocking to me."
