I had no idea ketamine was a problem with kids

Start prosecuting social media companies for facilitating drug sales for a start.

I'd never heard of teenagers having ketamine addiction until yesterday. Sounds like it has some horrible effects.

I remember when it was all fields Es and raves that were the latest moral panic.

Thought Gen X were all going to be dead by the age of 40.

I know it is a strong pain killer, horse tranquiliser and sold illegally for recreational use. Who is prescribing it for 12 year olds and why?

Even the ecstasy was safer back then though. More pure and less grams per pill. Now it’s all synthetic shit, mdma etc. Just awful. I know when cocaine had its day, plenty of people just couldn’t afford it. This horrible stuff is cheap.

Leah Betts died of a water overdose

The hysteria at the time rather hardened my views on scientific literacy, policy and peoples intelligence.

Well aren’t you pleasant? Personally I wasn’t there thinking about scientific literacy as a teenager at school learning about drugs. I watched the video and it did its intended job. I was afraid to take drugs. Can’t really say that was a bad thing. I still had fun.

Also, yes she died of a water overdose, but that was most certainly because she had took ecstasy. Ecstasy can make someone feel very thirsty for several reasons. It can raise body temperature and cause sweating, which causes some genuine fluid loss, while also causing a very dry mouth, which can feel like intense thirst. At the same time, ecstasy can increase a hormone called ADH, which tells the kidneys to retain water rather than getting rid of it through urine. Dancing and being in a hot environment can make the thirst even stronger. The danger is that someone may therefore keep drinking large amounts of water because they feel thirsty, while their body is actually retaining that water, causing the sodium in their blood to become dangerously diluted.

Not exactly rocket 🚀

I was scared to take Es but did eventually dabble a bit at university. Never had one that actually did anything.

True she died from hyponatraemia from drinking huge amounts of water in a short space of time. Coroner commented that the effects of the ecstasy likely contributed by reducing urination. Tbh any story that puts people off drugs is not a bad thing.

Interested to hear that ketamine is bought as a powder and snorted. I use it at work not infrequently (anaesthetist) and it comes in vials of liquid. It is extremely cheap and used in most developing countries for induction/maintenance of anaesthesia.

I read that 30 tons was consumed last year in the uk.

I had to google it as I thought it was a typo

They get it through social media and QR codes posted on lamp posts. Use is rife amongst young people. It’s cheaper than alcohol.

Both Matthew Perry and The Vivienne were ketamine related deaths

It destroys your bladder. Then it destroys you. Parents need to get of the tiktok and start paying attention to what their kids are doing

Unless you brew your own ...

I doubt many 13 year olds are doing that. Its price is part of its appeal.

Ket is actually exported from the UK where it's defacto legal to other European countries where it's more restricted after it arrives from being legitimately manufactured for export from India. This was on the radio last year

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002db8l?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Sounds like a Great British success story to me. Something we are actually good at.

Takes me back to the good old days of the opium wars.

It's all across news channels, featured in soaps. Teens have been telling their personal stories and there's posters about. How people have missed it, or don't know about it, I don't know. But I do find this site not quite in touch with real life. It's been around for about ten years.
Google Ketamine warning posters. They're in doctors, leasure centers, libraries etc.
Ketamine and bombs are used from kids 10 and upwards.

I’m really @amylou8 .
It must be awful knowing you can do so little.

Isn't it a horse tranquilliser?! Who the fuck would want to take that....!

Give me weed any day.

Horrific article in The Guardian today (may have been posted already).

Children as young as 13 being referred to UK hospital suffering from ‘ketamine bladder’ | Drugs | The Guardian

I meant to add that, for over a year, our local hospital, AlderHey has had a dedicated service/clinic for children using and addicted to Ket.

Part of the reasoning is that it's used during surgery, for children and other patients, so they've convinced themselves it's medically safe.

This was from 2024

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/nov/05/the-agony-of-ketamine-addiction-i-felt-like-i-was-peeing-glass

Yes, that’s the fallacy - a lot of the things are medically safe expect when they are not. Morphine and heroine are legally prescribed by medical staff,

It's not prescribed it's bought illegally
I used amphetamine(drug of choice) 80s 90s then LSD,E,dabbled with coke wasn't impressed,hashish.
Two drugs were a no were heroin and ketamine.
As a seasoned drug user I was nope Horse tranquliser was off limits.
The BBC article had a bit kids call jelly fish pee it's bits of the bladder lining that's came away and passed while peeing🤮

This is terrifying. I hope schools cover this early enough complete with the bladder issues etc.

It’s cheap. Very affordable for children but has a huge impact on health. The children who use it are very much part of the ‘it won’t happen to me’ brigade. It’s a very detrimental drug. The outcomes can be devastating.