Calls to make ketamine a class B drug

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs is calling for ketamine to be reclassified as a class B drug; it is currently a class C. Ketamine often goes by the street name K, Special K or Vitamin K.

The Home Office has released new figures showing that around 120,000 people between the ages of 16 and 59 years have taken ketamine in the past year in England and Wales. The new study has shown that ketamine is causing severe and disabling bladder damage.

We reported in October how ketamine abuse destroyed a teenager’s bladder, leaving it shrunken and covered in scar tissue. He now faces a lifetime of discomfort. The latest data shows that this was not an isolated case.

If ketamine is reclassified as a class B drug, it will be illegal to possess it; if caught in possession, a user could be faced with up to five years in jail. Dealers will face up to 14 years in prison or an unlimited fine. While the maximum prison sentence for using and dealing is long, the average sentence for possession of a class B drug in the UK is just over two months; dealers serve an average of 17 months.

Many people are taking large amounts of ketamine daily and are risking severe damage to their bladders. Some ketamine addicts have had to have their bladders removed.

The majority of members of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs agree that ketamine should be reclassified; however, there is some opposition.

Professor David Nutt has warned that if ketamine was to be made a class B drug then vets would not be able to administer it so easily to pets in the field, which would lead to many animals suffering. As there is little evidence that the drug is being taken from clinical stores, this change in law would only affect the medical community.