Ketamine could be upgraded from a class B to a class A drug after the government requested a review into its status.
Currently, those who supply or produce the club drug can face a prison sentence of up to 14 years, an unlimited fine, or both.
If it is reclassified – placing it alongside drugs like heroin, cocaine and LSD – supplying or producing ketamine 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 said a recent rise in use of the drug, with a record high of around 299,000 people aged between 16 and 59 reporting having used it in the year ending March 2023, is ‘deeply concerning’.
But a top drug treatment provider has warned that changing the classification is unlikely to stop usage and may make people more reluctant to seek help.
Dame Diana will write to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) asking for advice on how ketamine should be controlled.
The government is required by law to consult the ACMD before any changes to drug legislation are made.
Ketamine, widely known as ket or K, is an anaesthetic that has become popular as a party drug in clubs and raves.
Typically snorted as a powder or injected as a liquid, it can distort the user’s perceptions of sight and sound, making them feel dissociated from their surroundings.
According to recent reports, it is also often used in the drug cocktail named pink cocaine.
It’s one of the most detected drinks in incidents of spiking too.
Dr David Bremner, Medical Director at drug and alcohol support provider Turning Point 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’.
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 ACMD’s recommendations before making any decision.’
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