Ketamine tops cocaine as new drug of choice
Government advisor ranks class C drug as more harmful than Ecstasy
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The horse tranquilliser ketamine is increasingly replacing cocaine as the substance of choice among Britain's recreational drug users, according to charities and experts.
Use of the drug, known as "Special K" or "Raver's Smack", was found to be on the rise in nine out of 20 areas surveyed by the charity DrugScope. The British Crime Survey shows that use of the drug last year increased nationally by 10 per cent on 2006-07.
Once seen as a drug exclusively for the rave and dance scene, its popularity is now growing among Britain's middle-class users due to its price – a gram of ketamine costs £20, half as much as the same amount of cocaine – and the fact that it is seen as a "safe" and "clean" drug.
However, a survey carried out by Professor David Nutt, the chairman of the Government's drug advisory panel, ranks the class C drug as the sixth most dangerous illegal drug available – more harmful than Ecstasy and cannabis. The mistaken belief that the substance is risk-free is encouraging more young people to try ketamine and to take it in increasingly higher doses.
But experts say that it can cause heart or lung failure and point to the fact that it has been linked to 23 deaths between 1993 and 2006. In 2006 it was classified as a class C drug.
Martin Barnes, chief executive of DrugScope, said: "There is worrying evidence that people are experimenting with larger amounts or are even injecting the drug. Evidence of young people using ketamine is a particular concern, especially as many users may underestimate the risks involved."
The popularity of the drug, which can be snorted, swallowed, injected and even smoked, has grown from an estimated 60,000 users between 1998 and 2000 to about 113,000 in 2008. At last year's Glastonbury festival, police seized double the amount of ketamine than they did at the 2007 event.
The DrugScope survey shows that use of drug is increasing in Portsmouth, London, Bristol, Ipswich, Birmingham, Nottingham, Sheffield, Blackpool and Newcastle. And police forces in many of these areas say they are aware of the increased prevalence of the drug. Its popularity is illustrated on the internet, with some users posting videos of themselves, high on the substance, on the video-sharing website YouTube.
Mr Barnes added: "It is becoming very popular and it's a drug that a lot of people are talking about. The very fact that the price is falling shows how popular it is becoming. Three years ago, when we started this study, it was selling for about £30 a gram, now it is £20."
He added: "The fall in price does suggest that the people who are selling the stuff have no problems getting hold of it."
What is ketamine?
Originally used to treat injured soldiers in Vietnam, ketamine is most commonly used now as a horse tranquilliser. It has also been experimented with to treat depression and alcohol and heroin addiction. It was classified as an illegal drug in 2006 by the UK Government. It is usually sold in powder or liquid form for about £20 per gram. Unlike cocaine and heroin, it is not physically addictive, but, like cannabis and Ecstasy, it is psychologically addictive.
User's view: 'You forget about your normal life'
David first tried ketamine as a 20-year-old student at university in London. Now a 27-year-old marketing executive, living in Shoreditch, east London, he still takes the drug once a month. "I see it as a fun, sociable drug," he said. "I do it at house parties or if I'm having a big night out. I used to do cocaine, but I suppose I gradually replaced coke with ket. Coke is much more expensive and it generally makes everyone very loud and aggressive. Ket is different. It costs less and you use it in smaller quantities so it lasts a lot longer. The feeling you get is different too. It makes you feel anaesthetised to your worries. You forget about your normal life and everything is euphoric. Sometimes I've had bad trips, but I've never felt angry when on ketamine. I think it is a lot safer too. I've read it can have long-term effects on your health, but it doesn't seem as dangerous as cocaine. When on coke I used to feel my heart pounding and it didn't feel right. The other reason I changed is because of the classification. I've got a proper job and a career and I don't want to lose that. Ketamine is a class C drug so if I get caught I'm probably only going to get a slap on the wrist."
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Comments
God Bless and be good.
The lifetime risk of dying in a transport accident is remarkably high - with most of the risk coming from road traffic accidents. While the risk of dying in a road accident in any year in the UK approaches 1 in 20,000, the lifetime risk is 1 in 240. Data source: Bandolier
So 1 in 20,000 for road deaths, i in 28,500 for K. We do not know what the lifetime risk for K is however unlike driving, research that drug taking usually shows a bell curve distribution...a 'drug career' (dogs are for life, for most users drugs are not).
What is the death rate for road deaths in the 16-25 year old range? What are the circumstances of the 23 'K' deaths, did they have any pre or comorbid conditions, e.g. asthma/diabetes? Were they drinking as well?
What is required is a legal framework that allows (longitudinal) studies into a range of clinical outcomes for various recreational drugs. then we can have better debate on how to best regulate and control (not prohibit).
K for many is a fun drug to take, deal with that fact first, but make explicit any potential harms in a meaningful way.
The government should spend less time compiling top ten lists of dangerous drugs they cant tax and more time looking into where all this Ketamine is coming from. I certainly dont think much of it is coming into the country illegally but rather being skimmed off legal sources by dishonest people.
Within 5 years it will be as "dirty" and expensive as coke is now, so the K-heads should enjoy it while it lasts.
Yes ketamine is used as a horse tranquiliser, but is far more commonly used in our hospitals. its one of the safest anesthetics known to man because its 'disassociative' and does not slow down the heart rate. for this reason its often used on new born babies and the infirm. when used occaisionally ketamine is a reletivley safe recreational drug.
the reason ketamine is becoming problematic at the moment has to to with the increase in habitual/daily use and an increase in intravenous use. the injecting of substances in unsanitary conditions carries obvious health risks and daily use of ketamine can lead to very serious urinary problems. niether of these issues are mentioned in this farcical artical.
the artical also suggests that cocaine users are turning to ketamine because its cheaper and because it has a 'safe' 'clean' image. this is nonsense. most self respecting cocaine users would not go near ketamine. mainly because it has precisley the opposite image. even hardcore ket users refer to the drug as 'dirty', and to even suggest that ketamine could overtake cocaine in popularity is plainly ridiculous.
please research your work more thoroughly in future. misnformation regarding such a serious matter in the national press is irresponsible. the author clearly has no experience of drug use or drug users.
i expect better of the independant. perpaps you should consider appointing someone who knows their subject?
anon - a drugs worker.
whoever wrote this article is a total mongoose and has no idea whats going on.
HOW is ketamine considered as "safe and clean"?
everyone hates ketamine and i have had trouble being socially accepted as a ketamine user.
until all my friends decided they loved it too, however they still consider it dirty and grimy even though they take pills all the time which are WAY more bad for you in and grimy every way they are just more socially acceptable.
ALL drugs make you forget about your normal fucking life!
when your on pills your not thinking "aww no my college work"
thats the appeal of drugs in the first place
evryone must take k
if other drug users don't accept you because you take ket, especially as your friends, then that's there ridiculous narrow-mindedness. for your friends to consider ket dirty and at the same time take E regularly is astonishing really, it shows real naivety - don't worry about it
non drug users will always more often than not, find drug use and users a bit dirty. only the most open-minded people can see that ket for example is a persons drug of choice, where wine, or lager etc is another persons drug of choice. lets face it, the majority of people who drink, will drink most nights, a bottle of wine or two - that is their own ket night, their escape for the evening
when you drill down, what's the difference to four friends sitting round a table and having a couple of bottles of wine, to four friends having a couple of grams of ket - nothing, apart from the ket table are having a better time by a country mile, oh, plus the wine ;)
My old flatmate had a terrible Ket habit. (i myself am solely a Cannabis user, i won't touch anything else not even beer). He used to fall into some pretty heavy 'K-holes'. A sort of Coma where the user is still sort of semi-concious.
The drugs industry in Britain alone is worth 40 billion!
If it was legalized and taxed we certainly wouldn't be anywhere near a recession. And the Gangs would have no money.
Drug prohibition is pathetic gesture politics enforced by politicians with no real ideas or values, just a desire to look tough on something.
Holland where cannabis is tolerated, has HALF the number of hard drug users that the UK does. In fact looking at this report that gulf has probably widened.
literally half of everything Jaquie smith states as fact about cannabis is wrong, some of it very blatent.
If the strength of cannabis is really increased ten fold then that means it's 150% thc...Work that one out, if they lie to us about something as petty as cannabis what important stuff are they lying about?
An ex flatmate of mine had a big Ketemine habit, he would often fall into what is known as a K-hole. It's kind of like a Coma, except the user is still semi-concious.
It's terrifying to discover if your not expecting it, a couple of times I was convinced he had died.
Of course if drugs were legalized and taxed, then the Gangs would have no product to push, and run out of money, the ammounts people were taking could also be regulated and controlled. Leading perhaps to the more brutal substances being phased out, rather than prohibited.
Perhaps the slice of a 40 Billion pound market would stabalize our economy too.
Drug prohibition only benifits the Gangs that push them, and is pathetic gesture politics by politicians who have no real ideas or values and want to look tough on something for the front page of the Mail!
Real Ecstasy doesn't kill, neither does cannabis. The Laced and dirty Ecstasy on the other hand kills!
And so do the misconseptions purpously put in place by governments.
The dirty drugs are only in circulation because the government refuse to control them!
They have the nerve to call drugs Controlled substances, when they couldn't be further out of control!
Also; 23 WHOLE deaths since 1993! Compared to how many thousands on the roads? Compared to how many thousands from smoking and alcohol related deaths?
I'm not a fan of ketamine but I just thought I'd introduce some perspective here.
If the govt really wants to be able to control these kinds of things the only way to do so is to legalise it and license production and sale, the same way they do tobacco and alcohol.
Scaremongering that's what this manufactured bad publicity is. Experts say it's the sixth most dangerous illegal drug. Please mention the legal drug types including nicotine and alcohol please... ! Which are proven to be much more dangerous.
Horse tranquilliser yes of course... but also dog and cats and other pets and animals. The larger the animal the more will be needed.
Ketamine when used as a tool can actually open up the mind and show users the way forward with crystal clarity but most users use it to relax and as a bit of fun. But believe me there is more to ketamine than initially meets the eye.
The NHS and other global medical organisations are certainly looking at its use as the fastest antidepressant available. IT IS being used as a painkiller so is it really so dangerous? Too much of any drug can be dangerous, of this surely no one can argue. Limited responsible use is the way forward so please put forward intelligent and thought out advise instead of trying to create a non existent scare using pure speculation as evidence.
And as every educated person knows, we all base our decisions on what drugs to take by what letter the geniuses in charge have decided to tack onto it today. I will definitely be reconsidering my use of ketamine once it ramps up to class A along with those similarly harmful drugs like lsd, ecstasy, heroin and crack cocaine. Just look at those four and tell me they are even remotely similar. What a joke it is.
I was going into a festival last year, got pulled up with 1 gram of MDMA. There we go, criminal record. Brilliant, just as well I already have an education and a well paid job or I'd be near unemployable and looked twice at before being considered for university.
Which is what really makes me laugh. Look at the size of the industry, look at the effect drug laws really have on the populace, and tell me honestly we wouldn't be better raking in taxes off them rather than letting some sketchy nutcase cut everything with whatever he can find under the sink.
Ah well. In my heady tennage years, I honestly thought one day we might grow some sense, our politicians might grow some nuts and finally put an end to the criminalisation of people for, at worst, shaving a few years off their life. Luckily I've become as jaded as everyone else now, and am ready to settle down to a life of living with the threat of having everything I've worked for taken away because of how I choose to spend my weekends.
Over 2000 are dying weekly from smoking related illnesses! And look at the social harm that is being caused by drinking related issues such as drunkeness every weekend costing our police force so much of OUR taxes! Yet these drunken louts don't contribute any additional taxes do they, why not? Any individual that is drunk and disorderly should be fined EVERY single time as it is self inflicted.
What social and physical harm is caused by ketamine use? Nothing compared to the LEGAL drugs of alcohol and nicotine. But that's okay because of the taxes these pull in Mr Brown! The board set up to classify drugs are supposed to use the physical and social harm effects that they cause. Ketamine should not have really been classified as a class C drug and cautions should be used sparingly for possession. Cannabis does have long term effects on the mind - I remember talking to an MOT tester who had been using for many years... He told me that now when carrying out an MOT test he often gets to a point where he forgets what to check next!
If it is ever reclassified to a higher class then this shows once again what complete uneducated fools we have running this country. What's more it will not stop ketamine use growing but it will continue to grow and do you know why? Because overall it is a safer drug than cocaine, ecstasy and acid. Cocaine is proven to be harmful in its own right. Ecstasy tablets are unpredicable due to the fact that they have other unknown ingredients added which could also include heroin and even known poisons and talcum powder. MDMA on its own is also not as dangerous as the others I have mentioned but more long term responsible testing on this drug should be carried out.
On the whole I have found that most ketamine is pure but sometimes cut with salt and I have asked medical experts about a little too much salt and their reply is.. " no real harm done in the quantities that we are talking about".
Also when an individual does some ketamine then there is generally a good period time before taking more due to the effects. Whereas which cocaine it can be taken again and again in quick succession.
Ketamine should be used responsibly and in limited quantity. With friends who can watch out for one another. Often deaths are actually caused by the effects of not being able to feel pain which could lead to bleeding to death and not realising what is happening or even falling unconcious in a bath and drowning. Too much MAY lead to bladder problems or lung and heart failure but I question the integrity of these tests as they are by no means conclusive. also 23 deaths in 14 years is a damn good record although it is still 23 too many. How many deaths have been caused in the same period by drunk drivers and drunken individuals who have walked into the path of a car?
Education and honesty about drug effects and the safe use of such is the answer. Not over statement and unecessary scare mongery by so called 'professionals'. If these professionals act professionally and offer sensible facts, figures and conclusions then they may be trusted.
GET ME ON IT NOW!!!!!!!!!