Ketamine, an anesthetic product diverted for its hallucinogenic effects and sold illegally at an affordable price, has become very popular among young British. Some experts even evoke an “epidemic”.
The crisis led the government in January to seek the opinion of an official advisory body on the opportunity to pass étémamine in class A substances. These drugs, heroin, cocaine and ecstasy, are Those whose possession, sale and production are liable to the heaviest prison sentences.
Anesthetic drug invented in 1962, ketamine is used in both human and veterinary medicine, often as tranquilizer for horses. “Some people love the dissociative effect, detachment of reality, Let drugs provide, “said an addictologist.
In England and Wales, between March 2023 and March 2024, approximately 269,000 people between 16 and 59 years old said they had consumed ketamineindicates the government. Among the young people of 16-24 ansthe use of this drug “has increased by 231% Over the past decade, “said the authorities.
The ketamine is linked to 53 deaths in England and Wales in 2023according to the National Statistics Office. Ketamine costs between 20 and 30 pounds (between 23 and 35 euros) the gram between 20 and 30 pounds, while cocaine can cost up to 100 pounds the gram, says a dealer.
Ketamine can however be administered under certain conditions in a therapeutic framework to treat depression. “We want people to see the healing benefits of ketamine when it is controlled in the right way,” said Lucy Da Silva, who heads a psychedelic therapy center. But there is, she admits, “a need for education on dangers of ketamine outside medical frameworkand the lives it takes “.
