WHAT YOUR TEENS ARE REALLY GETTING DELIVERED

With young people using apps to order their next hit, how worried should we be about the rise of ketamine?

- FRANCES LEATE, MATT BARBOUR

As parents, we like to think we know what our children are getting up to, but while substances such as alcohol and cigarettes can be smelt and seen, there's one deadly drug that is going under the radar, despite a spike in popularity across England and Wales.

Ketamine, which comes in powder or liquid form, is used as an anaesthetic, sedative and pain reliever in both animals and humans. It was first taken recreationally in the 1990s and now 'the party drug is more popular than ever with young people enjoying the relaxed high it can bring as well as using it to relieve anxiety and depression.

In parts of the UK, ketamine is so easy to get hold of that kids order it on a phone app, like they would a pizza. Yet the Class B drug - which is thought to have contributed to the death of Friends actor Matthew Perry in 2023 - can cause serious bladder, kidney and other health problems.

In the UK, deaths from the drug rose from 21 in 2022. In a 12-month period from March 2022, an estimated 299,000 16 to 59-year-olds reported using it. Now, the government has called for it to be reclassified as a Class A drug, the same as heroin and cocaine. But is this enough to put kids off? Woman's Own investigates...

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