Home Office may reclassify ketamine in response to record levels of use
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Illegal use in UK seems to reflect growth of unregulated market in US, where its high-profile users include Elon Musk. Ketamine, the anaesthetic taken by Elon Musk to control his moods, could be reclassified as a class A drug by the Home Office after illegal use reached record levels last year.
Currently controlled as a class B substance, ministers are seeking “expert advice” on reclassification after an estimated 299,000 people reported use of the drug last year. The billionaire owner of X, who this week has been embroiled in a row over grooming gangs with Keir Starmer, has described using small amounts of ketamine “once every other week” to manage the “chemical tides” that cause depression.
Dame Diana Johnson, the policing minister, will write to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) asking whether its classification should be changed and “carefully consider” its findings. Recent reports cited by the Home Office suggest the substance is often found in “pink cocaine”, a synthetic cocktail of drugs, as it announced the decision.
A coroner wrote to Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, in November calling for action over the classification of the drug after a man’s death. The Greater Manchester south senior coroner, Alison Mutch, found that James Boland, 38, from Manchester, had died of sepsis caused by a kidney infection that was “a complication of long-term use of ketamine”.
