Are 'Spiked' drinks warnings scaring people unnecessarily?

[Gromit]

The Government issued warnings yesterday about the dangers of drinks being 'spiked' with drugs. The fear is that when the smoking ban comes in, people will leave their drinks to go outside to smoke leaving an opportunity for their drinks to be tampered with. However, recent evidence suggests that in most cases where a date rape drug was alleged to have been administered, scientific analysis revealed no drug, but were just the results of binge-drinking.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles /news/news.html?in_article_id=436592&in_page_i d=1770

This crime undoubtedly occurs but is exceedingly rare. Is advice such as 'don't go to pubs alone' making the fear of the crime far greater than the actual risk. Or am I being complacent because I am male (even though it happens to men as well).

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml =/news/2007/04/03/nrape03.xml

[NJOK]

I agree - it's very very rare, and is often wrongly attributed to simple drunkeness.

But if scare-mongering makes people more careful about what they're drinking, I'm fine with that.