'I was in searing pain, passing jelly in my wee... I had dealers at my door threatening to snap me like a twig over £600'

...CHEAP DEALS, LIES AND A SPIRALLING HEALTH CRISIS ...INSIDE MERSEYSIDE'S BATTLE WITH KETAMINE ADDICTION

- By LIAM THORP

EGAN Taylor remembers with painful clarity the very first time she tried ketamine.

She was 18 years old and had been drinking with friends when one of them offered her a hit of the drug.

She initially refused, but as the night wore on she became tempted and asked for a bump.

Megan immediately enjoyed the dissociative effects of the drug, particularly as a young person struggling with autism and ADHD, but she had absolutely no inkling of the dark and dangerous road she had just stepped on to.

Now 22, Megan, from Walton, says she was completely unaware of the potential health impacts of ketamine when she began using it in social settings and never imagined that she would become addicted and see her entire future put at risk.

"I was actually always against drugs, I had never really associated with anyone who took them," she explains.

"But I think with my ongoing struggles with autism and ADHD, I was kind of looking for an escape and alcohol wasn't doing it, so that's why I tried it."

What started as a social habit quickly turned into something much more isolating.

Megan's ketamine intake went from making a gram bag last around four days and only taking it once a month to eventually taking the drug each day and at times consuming two full grams in just 12 hours.

For the uninitiated, ketamine is a dissociative anaesthetic that can have hallucinogenic effects. It was created as a medical anaesthetic in the 1960s and has been used heavily in both veterinary and human medicine ever since.

Its use as a party drug grew in the 1980s and 90s in particular, particularly in rave and club scenes.

But the use of ketamine - which is still currently a Class B drug - has exploded far beyond rave culture in recent years, with a deeply worrying rise amongst young people, including some children.