The war on drugs may be one of the biggest policy failures in history, but according to the BBC, the government is now seeking to upgrade ketamine from a Class B to a Class A drug.

Illegal use of ketamine has reached record levels in recent years, with an estimated 269,000 people aged 16-59 reporting ketamine use in the year ending March 2024.

Currently, supplying or producing ketamine could land you a prison sentence of up to 14 years, an unlimited fine, or both. If the drug is reclassified – meaning it will be classed on level with heroin, cocaine and crystal meth – supplying or producing the drug could mean life in prison.

The maximum jail sentence for possession would also increase from five years to seven years.

Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson called the rise in ketamine usage in the UK ‘deeply concerning’, but would upgrading the drug to a Class A really make a difference? You cannot stop people taking drugs if that’s what they want to do. Making something “more illegal” won’t change that, will it?

I can’t say I know many people that would do ketamine, but refuse coke or heroin or ecstasy because they’re Class A drugs. In fact, I’m pretty sure that more people do coke and MDMA than ketamine, despite the latter being the only one that’s currently a Class B drug. The most popular party drug in the UK is cocaine despite it being Class A and extremely expensive compared to every other drug.

And so, upgrading ketamine to Class A will make absolutely no difference to the drug’s consumption, and it’s really just performative politics from yet another government that’s so far behind with the times it’s unreal. But then what do you expect from a government that already ranks magic mushrooms the same as heroin?

Dr David Bremner, Medical Director at drug and alcohol support provider Turning Point, spoke some sense around the situation. He said:

 ‘We support an increase in awareness of the dangers of ketamine use as we have seen an increase in the number of people seeking support and significant health complications associated with using this drug.

‘However, in our experience, criminalising drug use doesn’t stop people using them. Indeed, people may be more reluctant to seek help or advice which makes them more vulnerable to drug-related harm.

‘It is important to improve education on the damage ketamine use causes and the support that is available to those struggling.’

The review comes after a coroner wrote to the home secretary last November calling for urgent action after the death of a man in Manchester. James Boland, 38, died of sepsis resulting from a kidney infection that was ‘a complication of long-term use of ketamine’. Senior coroner Alison Mutch wrote in a Prevention of Future Deaths Report that Mr Boland ‘had used cocaine a class A drug but had switched to ketamine, a class B drug, on the basis that he perceived it to be less harmful’.

Which it probably is, unless you use it for too long and in excess doses.

Dame Diana said: ‘It is vital we are responding to all the latest evidence and advice to ensure people’s safety and we will carefully consider the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) recommendations before making any decision.’

For the tourist who returned to his hotel room in Mexico to find the cleaner in a K-hole after he snorted up his drugs stash, click HERE.