Disco drug use increases

Ketamine induces strange out of body experiences

The drug ketamine - normally used as an anaesthetic - is becoming increasing popular on the UK club scene. Ketamine is cheaper to buy than ecstasy or cocaine and is not illegal to possess in this country, but there worries about its long term effects. The BBC's Sarah Boxhall reports.

Another weekend and thousands head for the UK's dance clubs - and if we believe all we hear quite a few of them will be taking drugs.

The club magazine Mixmag recently surveyed its readers and of the respondents, around 90% had taken ecstasy. But while ecstasy remains the staple dance drug - other drugs such as cocaine are becoming increasingly popular.

And as users search for different experiences - Ketamine, nicknamed "Special K" - which first became popular in the US - is now making a small but increasing appearance.

Conor McNicholas: "More people are experimenting"

Conor McNicholas, News Editor of Mixmag says: "It's not getting out of hand by any stretch but more and more people are experimenting with it and I think it's being brought over here simply because it is something new."

Ketamine is a prescription drug used as an anaesthetic in human and animal surgery - those that take it as a recreational drug inject or swallow this liquid or evaporate it into powder or tablets.

One 22-year-old ketamine user says the main effects of special K last about an hour - she says it induces strange out of body experiences and makes you feel numb.

"You just sit down paralysed - just complete within your own world - it can make you quite sick if you do it in very large doses," she said.

She says she does worry about the dangers of taking it.

Ketamine is becoming increasingly popular in clubs

"I've cut down having seen some people that have done quite a lot and seen the changes in their memory and like forgetting things all the time and I've heard of people who've had psychotic episodes."

Dr Valerie Curran from University College London tested a group of ketamine users on the night they took the drug and three days later.

"On the night they took the drug, the ketamine users were showing marked schizophrenic type symptoms, they felt disassociated from their environment and they showed gross impairments in all our tests involving memory and concentration," said Dr Curran.

Dr Valerie Curran: "It makes me worry"

"It makes me worry about the long term effects of ketamine in term of effects on the memory, that they might be long lived."

There are no accurate figures on how many people take "special K", but in 1996 the drugs charity Release interviewed people at dance venues and found 32% had tried ketamine.

Karl Jansen, who has just finished writing a book on the drug, believes it is becoming more popular but says it's difficult to measure its usage.

"I think it is being used quite a lot, but it doesn't show up much in crime figures because it isn't a controlled drug."

But the worry is that not everyone knows when they're taking ketamine.

Dr John Ramsey: "It's not easy to know what people are taking"

Dr John Ramsey analyses many of the drugs seized by police or confiscated at clubs. He says that many ecstasy users don't know exactly what they're swallowing.

"It's not at all easy to know what people are taking or what they think they are taking. When they buy a pill they have no way of knowing what's in it."

In 1996 the UK government considered tightening the controls on ketamine but decided there wasn't enough evidence of its abuse.

Not everyone believes criminalising it is the answer - but most people do agree that users need to know a lot more about the long term effects and dangers of taking "special K".