The first time Barney Casserly took ketamine at a UK music festival, he thought he had found "nirvana." Five years later, he died in agony, much to the dismay of his loved ones.
"I never imagined this could happen to our family," Deborah Casserly, the mother of Barney, who disappeared in April 2018 at the age of 21, told AFP.
Ketamine, an anesthetic drug misused for its hallucinogenic effects and sold illegally at a low price, has become very popular among young Britons.
To the point that some experts are talking about an “epidemic”.
The crisis led the government in January to seek advice from an official advisory body on whether to reclassify ketamine as a Class A substance.
These drugs – including heroin, cocaine and ecstasy – are those whose possession, sale and production carry the longest prison sentences.
In the consulting room of Dr. Niall Campbell, an addiction specialist at Priory Hospital in Roehampton, southwest London, Deborah Casserly, 64, shows photos of her son hugging her, smiling.
She recounts, with tears in her eyes, her descent into hell.
– “Excruciating pain” –
Barney was just 16 when he first took ketamine at the Reading Music Festival in England. In his diary, he describes discovering his "nirvana."
He quickly becomes addicted to this drug, which can take the form of a white powder or come in liquid form.
"He went from using it in a festive setting to using it at home, alone (...) a tragic, sad and desperately lonely experience," his mother describes.
Barney is sent to rehab centers but relapses, using daily and enduring "excruciating pain" from the drugs.
"He spent long periods in a hot bath, (…) because his cramps were too severe. He couldn't sleep well at night, he constantly had to get up to urinate," she recalls.
The young man suffers from ulcerative cystitis, an inflammation caused by ketamine affecting the bladder.
"Mom, if this is what living is all about, I don't want to anymore," he said on April 7, 2018. The next day, his mother found him dead in his bed.
An anesthetic drug invented in 1962, ketamine is used in both human and veterinary medicine, often as a tranquilizer for horses.
"Some people love the dissociative, detachment from reality effect that the drug provides," says Dr. Campbell.
Users may experience a sensation of falling into a hole, called the "K-hole," a condition that causes loss of consciousness.
Some 269,000 people aged 16 to 59 reported using ketamine in England and Wales between March 2023 and March 2024, according to the government.
And among young people aged 16-24, the use of this drug "has increased by 2,31% over the last decade," according to the authorities.
– “Really banal” –
Ketamine was linked to 53 deaths in England and Wales in 2023, according to the Office for National Statistics.
"It's really commonplace now, you can find it everywhere," says Laiden, a London dealer using a pseudonym. "It's a cheap drug with a powerful effect, and people have no qualms about selling it to young people," he adds.
Ketamine costs between 20 and 30 pounds (23 and 35 euros) per gram, while cocaine can cost up to 100 pounds per gram, he says.
"This epidemic is having a huge impact on the country," says Niall Campbell. Ketamine is highly addictive, and when users "come to us, the party is over. They're not going out clubbing anymore; they're alone at home (...), killing themselves," he says.
Ketamine can, however, be administered under certain conditions in a therapeutic setting to treat depression.
Lucy and Alex da Silva run a psychedelic therapy center in London, using doctor-prescribed ketamine lozenges to treat depression and trauma.
“We want people to see the healing benefits of ketamine when it's properly managed,” says Lucy da Silva. But there is, she acknowledges, “a need for education about the dangers of ketamine outside of medical settings, and the lives it takes.”
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