Consider yourself warned. Anyone caught with ketamine this weekend, and every day hereafter, can get up to 5 years in prison, as the drug was recently reclassified from a class c to class b drug by the UK government. The move comes after reports that 18-year-old Ellie Rowe died as a result of combining ketamine and alcohol at Boomtown Fair festival last year, and follows an Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs recommendation from late last year, which has now been accepted by Home Secretary Theresa May.
A statement from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs said:
"Ketamine misuse can cause a range of physical and psychological harms. There has been an increase in acute ketamine toxicity presentations to hospitals in recent years. In addition, there is now good evidence that frequent and heavy ketamine misuse can cause significant toxicity to the bladder, urinary tract and kidneys. There are numerous reports of individuals having to have surgery to remove their bladders because of severe ketamine related bladder damage."
According to the 2013 Mixmag Global Drug Survey, "ketamine was the ninth most popular drug among UK respondents, with 50.6 per cent having tried it at least once and 31.5 per cent having taken it in the previous 12 months."
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