Special K. Ket. Wonkey Donkey. Ketamine is a widely used clinical and veterinary anaesthetic that has been used as a party drug in the UK since the late 80s. Reports suggest that young people are now turning to ketamine as a DIY treatment due to increasing difficulty in accessing mental healthcare on the NHS. Concerned with the drug’s ever-increasing popularity, the policing minister Dame Diana Johnson has announced the UK Government is seeking advice on upgrading ketamine from its current Class B drug classification.
“The government will seek expert advice on reclassifying ketamine to become a Class A substance, after illegal use of the drug reached record levels in the year ending March 2023.
“The prevalence of the drug in England and Wales has risen significantly in recent years. In the year ending March 2023, an estimated 299,000 people aged 16-59 reported ketamine use in the last year – the largest number on record,” a Home Office statement reads.
Changing the class of ketamine will bring about tougher sentences for possession, sale and distribution, but will it stop people from using it?
Ketamine, a brief history
In 1963, Calvin Stevens developed ketamine, an anaesthetic, in Belgium. It is a non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist; both nitrous oxide and PCP (Phencyclidine), otherwise known as angel dust, fall into this category. It was developed as an alternative to PCP due to the heavy psychoactive side effects patients were experiencing.
Ketamine is widely used in medicine as it allows the patient to be put under local anaesthetic without completely losing consciousness. This allows medical and veterinary teams to be able to complete fairly routine procedures quickly and without the need for excess care. According to a University of Bristol report, ketamine was originally marketed as a rapidly acting anaesthetic with few side effects. However, dissociative and hallucinogenic symptoms were quickly reported. Despite these problems, the drug was the most widely used battlefield anaesthetic in the Vietnam War, and it didn’t take long for its unique ’emergence difficulties’ to be picked up on by enthusiastic psychonauts.
Ketamine appeared as a recreational drug in the UK during the late 1980s and early 1990s rave scene. It gained popularity in the Midlands and the North of England during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Ravers at clubs such as Sundisential in Birmingham and Leeds, Progress in Derby, and Sacrilege in Nottingham would often take small doses of ketamine, sometimes alongside ecstasy or other stimulants, and still be able to dance, socialise, and enjoy themselves.
However, those who are inexperienced with the drug, combine it with alcohol, or consume excessive amounts can find themselves in a precarious situation as the anaesthetic effect takes hold. Overdose symptoms can range from dizziness and slurred speech to near unconsciousness, a state colloquially referred to as a “k-hole.”
Ketamine, like so many other substances, can have a dark side. Many people who begin taking it for fun can go on to develop a hard-to-shake dependence that can damage the mind and body.
Ketamine can be addictive – Matthew’s story
Matthew* started using ketamine in 2001 and took it almost continually until 2023. What began as a recreational drug that he took while partying quickly turned into an addiction that cost him jobs and relationships and took a heavy toll on his physical and mental health.
“When I was 17, I started occasionally using ketamine, mainly at weekends at clubs and after parties. It soon crept into being something that I would do by myself at home before bed and even first thing in the morning. I didn’t really have any concern or conscience about taking it. It felt like any other vice, like smoking or drinking, but the more I’d do, the higher my tolerance went.”
“As my use increased, I was like a functioning alcoholic but with ketamine. It was normal for me to have a line before I got in my car to drive. I crashed numerous times and even got banned for a year.
“Fast forward to 2023, with yet another relationship on the line, I knew I had to do something. I was wearing adult nappies as my bladder just wasn’t strong enough to last an hour. Clots were coming out in my pee, parts of my bladder wall that had corroded away from the abuse. I couldn’t go on anymore otherwise I’d be peeing into a bag the rest of my life.
“After stopping K, my bladder finally had a chance to recover, but I still had issues where I wouldn’t be able to pass urine for 30 minutes. I was exhausted every day. Eventually, I got a private urology appointment and was prescribed two medications, one to create a coating on my bladder wall to help heal it and another to widen my urethra.”
The problem with prohibition
Making ketamine a Class A would mean stiffer penalties for those caught in possession or selling it, but would this put people off taking it on a night out at raves or parties? History suggests otherwise.
The UK has already been subjected to decades of prohibition. The Dangerous Drugs Act of 1920 was the first significant law to limit the production, import, export, and distribution of certain drugs. The Act was introduced in the wake of WWI due to fears of soldiers using heroin and cocaine in the UK while on leave. Before this ban, drugs were easily available to the general public from high street stores and pharmacies. Even the luxury department store Harrods sold a cocaine product complete with a hypodermic needle, marketed as “A Welcome Present for Friends at the Front.”
Prohibition in the UK was harmonised with the rest of the world due to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. It was tightened further in 2016 with the Psychoactive Substances Act, a batshit crazy piece of legislation that effectively banned any substance producing a ‘narcotic’ effect on the body, (apart from tobacco, caffeine, and alcohol which all fall firmly into the ‘psychoactive substances’ bracket).
Despite all substances that can get you high being banned, drug use in the UK has risen dramatically. Before 1971, there were approximately 360 heroin users registered in the UK. Now, after over 50 years of prohibition, an estimated 200,000 people have tried heroin at least once, which is 0.6% of those aged 16-59.
History shows that imposing more restrictions on any drug, including ketamine, doesn’t deter use or sale. Experts feel it can have the opposite effect.
“Reclassifying Ketamine from Class B to Class A follows a long line of other drugs which have been reclassified upwards with little effect. Most people won’t be aware of the reclassification, or if they are, what it actually means,” says Ian Hamilton, a senior lecturer in addiction and mental health at the University of York.
“In terms of addressing the harms and risks that Ketamine poses, I would prefer to see the government put effort and resources into public health messaging that is targeted at those most likely to use the drug, to try and improve understanding. It is crucial that there is specialist support and help available to people who develop problems with Ketamine. This needs to be provided in a timely way and one that minimises barriers to treatment.”
Ketamine’s legality in the UK
For many years, ketamine wasn’t considered a drug worthy of legal concern. Regulation came under the Medicines Act 1968 and the Medicines for Human Use 1994 legislation. Talking to leafie, early ketamine users said that when they’d been caught in possession of the drug before regulation, they simply weren’t charged. It wasn’t until 2005 that ketamine seizures by border officials led to the drug being classified as a Class C substance. It was then upgraded to Class B in 2014.
Ketamine’s popularity can be seen rising in data provided by The National Poisons Information Service (NPIS). NPIS provides information and advice to people who have overdosed on or have accidentally taken a drug. In 1995, there were fewer than 10 ketamine enquiries (0.02% of all calls), rising to around 100 in 2001 (0.09% of total calls). In 2023/2024, the service was contacted 9,158 times via phone, online, and app for ketamine advice. A whopping 10,000% increase from the years before it became illegal. If the government’s goal was to stop people from taking ketamine and to reduce the harm, these figures clearly show that they have failed.
Steve Rolles, a senior policy analyst at drug reform organisation Transform, calls for a harm reduction approach to substance use. He doesn’t feel the change in classification will have any impact on the number of people using ketamine in the UK.
The government should be exploring how to educate the public… instead of defaulting to the failed drug war populism of the past
“We are disappointed that the government’s response to the growing challenges around ketamine is to default to a punitive enforcement response.
“There’s no evidence at all that increasing the classification of a drug reduces the harms associated with it – Indeed, increasing criminalisation and punishment is likely to be a greater burden on the criminal justice system and increase harm for people who use drugs, particularly those who are economically and socially marginalised.
“It’s worth remembering that when ketamine was initially prohibited under the Misuse of Drugs Act in 2005 use rose sharply in the ensuing years. And since it was reclassified from C to B in 2014 Levels of use have almost quadrupled. Classification changes didn’t necessarily drive that increase but they certainly didn’t prevent it, and any suggestion that a move to Class A is a meaningful solution to the emerging challenges is clearly ridiculous.
“The government should be exploring how to educate the public. We know that harm reduction interventions can actually deliver positive outcomes instead of defaulting to the failed drug war populism of the past.”
Ketamine undoubtedly has its dangers, and the public should be appropriately informed of these risks. However, in 2023 more people died falling from a ladder than from ketamine use. It would be irrational to suggest that those who sell ladders should receive life imprisonment or that ladders should be banned to protect the public from harm. Prohibition is ineffective and historically unsuccessful. The UK population, including individuals like Matthew, requires a drug policy based on education and care before it is too late.
“A year and a half later I’m still off the K,” Matthew says. “I’d hate to think what state I’d be in if I carried on, the support from my partner, friends and family saved my life.”
*Names have been changed to protect privacy
