Ketamine killed our kids after leaving them crippled like old men… it’s even harder to kick than heroin

SOPHIE Russell knew that ketamine was going to kill her – but the ‘party’ drug had her so tightly in its grip that she could not kick the deadly habit.

A spell in rehab, trips to accident and emergency and the total loss of control of her bladder were not enough to end the addiction for the student from Lincoln.

Tragically, Sophie died in September, aged just 20, from chronic ketamine misuse – just three years after first trying the illegal substance with pals on a night out.

For that reason her grieving mum Tracy Marelli is backing plans to reclassify this powerful anaesthetic as a class A drug.

Currently, it is rated as a class B substance, placing it alongside cannabis which is considered by many to be a “soft drug.”

It is a mistaken belief among many young people that ketamine is “safe” that has led to the country being in the midst of what is known as Generation Ket.

Many parents report that their children have even been told by misinformed medics that it isn’t addictive – even though at least 55 people died in Britain from the habit in 2023.

It was also responsible for the death of Friends’ star Matthew Perry last year.

Sophie said to me, ‘it’s everywhere.’ She couldn’t get away from it

Tracy Marelli

One drug charity has revealed to The Sun that the number of people they are trying to help kick their ketamine habit has more than doubled in five years.

The most recent figures show that a quarter of 16-to 24-year-olds have tried it and around 300,000 people aged 16-59 in the UK are currently taking the drug.

The substance, which is also known as Special K, Ket or Kit Kat, sells for as little as £3. 

Civil servant Tracy, 47, from Lincoln, says: “It’s totally out of control with the young generation. It’s too cheap. It’s available on every street corner. 

“And I think it should be reclassified as an A so there’s more control over it with the police.

“Sophie said to me, ‘it’s everywhere.’ She couldn’t get away from it. She begged me to go away all the time. 

“I did my best, but I couldn’t afford to keep sending her away.” 

Hard drug

Tracy has arranged to meet her local MP this week to talk about making the punishment for possessing and selling ketamine more serious.

If it was a class A substance, dealers could get life in prison rather than the 14 year maximum at the moment and the potential jail time for possession would go up from five years to seven.

Clare Rogers, a midwife from Tamworth, Staffs, has been campaigning for this change, having lost her coder son Rian to ketamine addiction in April 2023 when he was aged just 26.

She set up an online petition calling for tougher action and ketamine awareness page on Facebook.

Clare, 48, tells The Sun: “They think it is safe because hospitals use it, my son said to me ‘mum it’s completely safe, I’m not going to die’ and now my son is dead because of this drug.

“Making it a class A drug won’t bring my son back but hopefully it will potentially put off young people taking it.”

Reclassifying ketamine as a class A banned substance isn’t just about locking criminals up for longer.

Clare explains: “The police have admitted to us in a Teams call that they don’t take it as seriously because it is a class B.

“There is also a scoring system for rehabilitation that means that people with class B addictions are left at the bottom of the pile.”

Home Office Minister Dame Diana Johnson is going to write to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to see whether it should be upgraded to Class A.

She said: “Ketamine is an extremely dangerous substance and the recent rise in its use is deeply concerning.” 

Agonising pain

Rian started off experimenting with the drug at music festivals, but ended up taking so much he suffered an ulcerated bladder.

Clare says: “The ketamine causes bladder pain and then they use more ketamine to relieve the pain. It is a vicious cycle.

“My son’s doctor told him it is not addictive, you just need to stop, which is wrong.

“Lots of parents say doctors have said the same things. There needs to be more training in the health service.”

The family were so worried they pooled together £7,000 to pay for him to attend a residential rehab in May 2021.

Clare says: “He went into rehab like an 80-year-old man, all emaciated and hunched over, like a crab, in so much pain with his bladder.

“But afterwards his eyes sparkled for the first time in years. His smile was back. I really thought we’d turned a corner.”

Just three weeks later, though, he’d fallen off the wagon and less than two years later he was found dead in the bathroom of the flat he was sharing.

He went into rehab like an 80-year-old man, all emaciated and hunched over, like a crab,

Clare Rogers

Ketamine was created in 1962 in the United States and was used on American casualties in the Vietnam War.

In the 1990s it became a popular recreational drug at raves before seemingly going out of fashion.

Pastor Mick Fleming, who founded the Church on The Street charity, is former drug addict who used to take ketamine.

He says: “It is a little bit trippy. It is almost like you are in a computer game.”

But Mick now thinks it should be treated as a Class A drug “because of the damage it is doing.”

The minister says: “It is psychologically addictive and I fear that beyond the reported deaths other users are taking their own lives because it has wrecked their bodies.

“When you’re trying to come off the drug, you get such overwhelming and horrendous feelings of impending doom and anxiety that it’s just too hard to stop.

“I’ve had people drive up to Church on The Street and beg me for help and they just say, “I can’t stop”. There’s no substitute drug you can take to counteract the effects of withdrawal, either, like methadone for heroin – when you’re coming off Ket you have to go through the effects and it’s excruciating. I’ve seen kids getting into over eight grand of debt with this drug.”

The NHS is now waking up to the fact that it is more prevalant than ever before.

Specialist ketamine clinics have been set up in urology departments in Bristol and London to help cope with the number of patients.

Ket to order

Generation Ket is not just leaving parents bereaved but children as well.

Georgia Farnsworth was a 26-year-old mother of two children, one aged six and another nine when she was found dead in her bath after taking ketamine.

Her mum Sarah Killingsworth, 56, from Lincoln, who works with adults with special educational needs, had rushed to her aid when she didn’t answer her phone last June.

Sarah says: “A neighbour helped us smash the window, we saw water pouring through the ceiling and then found her in the bath.

“Her little ones will never get their mum back. I support classifying ketamine as a class A drug.”

There were apps on her phone for her to order the drug

Sarah Killingsworth

Even when Georgia was unable to leave the house due to the pain from ketamine she was still able to get hold of the drug.

Sarah says: “Even when she was bed bound, people would post it through the letter box.

“There were apps on her phone for her to order the drug.”

To the outside world, Georgia didn’t look like a drug addict – but the damage was being done.

Sarah adds: “She was so beautiful. You don’t have to look like a crack head – the ket had destroyed her from the inside.”

A common theme among grieving parents is that their children only realised how dangerous ketamine is once it was too late.

Tracy says that Sophie, who was studying to be a psychology counsellor, suffered with her bladder for almost two years.

She says: “She was fully incontinent for over a year before she passed.”

Sophie tried detox in April 2024 in and seemed to have turned a corner.

Tracy recalls: ” I thought she was doing amazingly, but then a few months later she told me she thought she could handle a line but it was the worst mistake of her life.

“Sophie said to me a month before she passed away I’m going to die, but I don’t want to.”

Deadly dose

It is not just the long term effects of ketamine which are so terrifying.

Jeni Larmour, from  County Armagh in Northern Ireland, died aged 18 after taking the drug just a few days after starting university in Newcastle in 2020.

She was not addicted to the drug and is believed to have just tried it with some new friends.

Her mum Sandra said: “Was there the element of ‘I’m at university now, I’m a big girl, I can fit in’ and this is what you do?”

Many users also report suffering from what is known as K-hole, when they lose the ability to move and feel that their body has separated from their mind.

Tracy concludes: “I just want to make parents aware of how dangerous ketamine is.

“Their children are possibly taking this on a night out. Sophie was partying, having a great time, as they do.

“And then she finds herself in a bedroom on her own taking it, losing her friends and then her life.”