Health warning after a surge in ketamine use

Police and drug organisations are warning of a health time bomb after a dramatic rise in the number of young people abusing the drug ketamine in the Norton Radstock area.

Project 28, a Bath and North East Somerset Council-funded drug and alcohol service for young people, has warned that the dangers of using the drug need to be highlighted before problems get worse.

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Now the warning has been repeated as use of the drug has seen another sharp rise.

Maria Brooks from Project 28 described the problems as being far worse in rural areas, especially Norton Radstock, and promised more attention and resources would be provided by the drug service to help try to reduce the problems.

She said Project 28 was now targeting Norton Radstock and as a result she would be based at Norton Radstock College each week from September to give confidential advice to young people who wanted help or information about drugs.

Ms Brooks warned that serious kidney and urinary problems were one of the major risks associated with heavy use of the drug. In the worst cases, people’s bladders have been so badly damaged they have had to be surgically removed.

She also warned of other dangers caused by the drug, which can cause people to feel disassociated with the situation they are in, leaving them at risk of injury or assault.

Project 28 has already started work in the local area and says a number of young people have been referred for help after outreach workers spoke to young people using the town’s new skate park.

Misuse of the drug in Midsomer Norton has already been high-profile news.Two people were hospitalised in July after overdosing on the drug in Midsomer Norton during the evening of the town’s annual Mardi Gras.

Last month a 20-year-old man from Midsomer Norton was fined and banned from driving for 12 months after being caught driving while under the influence of ketamine.

Ketamine is a short-acting, but powerful, general anaesthetic which depresses the nervous system and causes a temporary loss of body sensation.It was made illegal a number of years ago, after a surge in the number of people using it as a recreational drug, but is legal in low doses for medicinal use as an anaesthetic and horse tranquilliser.

Recent investigations by DrugScope’s magazine

Ms Brooks said although there was a number of schools of thought about why the drug was so popular in Norton Radstock, it is thought boredom and the low cost were major factors.

The drug also has a strong following on the illegal rave and dance scene.

Usually it is snorted or swallowed, but the charity DrugScope also recently discovered more people were injecting it in an attempt to experience stronger hallucinations, which increases the risk of infection from dirty needles.