Deaths involving illicit ketamine use have soared twenty-fold since 2014, a new study has revealed.
In what is the most detailed assessment of ketamine-related deaths to date, researchers found deaths surged from six in 1999 to 123 projected deaths in 2023. The analysis of coroner’s reports found there were 696 deaths with detections of illicit ketamine in total between 1999 and 2024 in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Experts warn that mixing the drug with others, such as opioids, cocaine, benzodiazepines, and gabapentinoids, is increasingly the cause behind these fatalities, with the average number of substances involved in each case also rising.
As the fresh data highlights the dangers of using the Class B drug, family members of those who have died from taking ketamine are among those calling for it to be reclassified.
Clare Rogers, who lost her son Rian Rogers aged 26 to ketamine use, told The Independent: “It’s horrific if it gets hold of you. It can cause lifelong damage to your body – you could be urinating in nappies, you won’t be able to have sex again. Ultimately, it could end in death, like it has with my son and multiple other people that I know.”
Ketamine is an anaesthetic drug that has hallucinogenic effects. It can be prescribed medically as a sedative and is commonly used on animals. But when the drug is misused, it can cause serious harm, including sometimes irrevocable damage to the bladder and, in some cases, death.
Researchers warn that the cheap cost of ketamine – around £15-30 for a gram compared to £80 for cocaine – could be driving increased consumption.
An estimated 299,000 people aged 16-59 reported illicit ketamine use in 2024, according to King’s College London, which conducted the new analysis with the University of Hertfordshire and Manchester Metropolitan University. Meanwhile, the drug has been implicated in the deaths of celebrities, including Friends actor Matthew Perry, and Elon Musk is reported to use ketamine for his moods.
Ms Rogers, 49, said her son started taking ketamine recreationally aged 19 when he went to festivals. However, the death of his best friend, combined with the impact of Covid lockdowns, led Rian to start taking the drug more regularly, until he descended into addiction, she said. Ms Rogers described how her “bubbly, kind, smiling” son became a “shell” of himself and a “recluse” as the addiction took hold of him.
Just seven years after Rian first took ketamine, two police officers knocked on Ms Rogers’ door to tell her that her son had died, on 24 April 2023. He had been studying at the University of Nottingham as well as working in coding, a career path he wanted to pursue.
The 49-year-old, from Warwickshire, said Rian had been desperate to stop taking ketamine, and that the family had spent years trying to help him, including checking him into rehab, as he started to develop bladder issues, worsening pain and deteriorating mental health. “It was years of trying to help him come off it, then failing miserably,” she said. “It’s an addiction I’ve never experienced or seen before in my life. I so wanted to help him, but just didn’t know how.”
Ms Rogers, who is a midwife, is calling for ketamine to be reclassified as a Class A drug as well as for better education on its dangers.
The new study, published on Tuesday in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, found that annual deaths with post-mortem detections of illicit ketamine have risen over the past decade.
However, the researchers stressed that the proportion of deaths where ketamine was the sole or primary cause has fallen, reflecting a shift towards “increasingly risky patterns of polydrug use”, which raises doubts over whether single-substance drug policies can reduce harms. Mixing ketamine – a dissociative – with depressant drugs like opioids and benzodiazepines makes it harder to judge the effect each drug is having, which can result in people taking more of each drug than intended.
The analysis also identified a demographic shift, with deaths increasingly happening among older, socioeconomically disadvantaged, and dependent drug users, rather than just among younger recreational populations. However, the experts said harms from ketamine use among young people – such as bladder injury and dependence – remain a serious concern.
The research also showed that 85 per cent of the deaths between 2020 and 2024 were men.
Dr Caroline Copeland, lead author of the study, said: “We are seeing more ketamine-related deaths, but these deaths rarely involve ketamine alone. They are increasingly part of complex polydrug use patterns, often among people facing social disadvantage and entrenched drug dependence. This means single-drug policies, such as reclassification, are unlikely to tackle the real drivers of harm.”
The authors are calling for a more comprehensive response to address ketamine-related harms, including expanded drug checking services and overdose prevention schemes, better integration of ketamine users into treatment pathways, and targeted education on the risks of polydrug use.
Dr Caroline Copeland added: “Illicit ketamine use has moved beyond the recreational setting. To reduce deaths, we need harm reduction, treatment, and social support strategies that reflect the realities of polydrug use – not just legislative changes focused on one substance.”
