Party drug Ketamine could be upgraded to a Class A drug after experts raised the alarm over record use.
Ministers are weighing up ramping up punishments for possession after figures showed nearly 300,000 adults below 60 reported using the drug in a year. The Home Office said ketamine is often an ingredient in ‘pink cocaine’ – a dangerous drug that Liam Payne had taken shortly before his death.
Dealers and producers could face life in prison if ketamine is upgraded. At the moment the maximum sentence is 14 years. Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson described it as an “extremely dangerous substance”. The Labour frontbencher added that rising use is “deeply concerning”.
It is one of the most detected drugs in spiking cases, and can cause irreversible damage to the bladder and kidneys. Dame Diana will write to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) to commission advice on ketamine. This will be put to the Home Office before a decision is made.
(
Donna Clifford/HullLive)
Dame Diana said: “Ketamine is an extremely dangerous substance and the recent rise in its use is deeply concerning.
“Through our Plan for Change and mission to make the nation’s streets safer, we will work across health, policing and wider public services to drive down drug use and stop those who profit from its supply.
“It is vital we are responding to all the latest evidence and advice to ensure people’s safety and we will carefully consider the ACMD’s recommendations before making any decision.”
In November Greater Manchester South coroner Alison Mutch wrote to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper calling for the drug to be reclassified. It followed the death of James Boland, 38, from Manchester, who died from sepsis caused by a kidney infection, which was “a complication of long-term use of ketamine”.
The coroner said keeping it as a Class B drug would be “likely to encourage others to start to use it or continue to use it under the false impression it is ‘safer”‘.
Last year the Home Office revealed that the number of people being treated for ketamine problems was over eight times higher than it was in 2015.