Children as young as 12 are now being treated for a drug once known only as a niche party substance, and hospitals across the United Kingdom are opening clinics just to handle the surge.
Story Snapshot
- Ketamine use among 16- to 59-year-olds in England and Wales rose from 160,000 people in 2014-15 to 299,000 in 2022-23, a government review found.
- Under-18s entering drug treatment for ketamine problems in England nearly tripled, from 335 to 917, between 2020-21 and 2023-24.
- Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool opened the UK’s first clinic built specifically to treat minors with ketamine addiction.
- Doctors link heavy, repeated use to severe and sometimes permanent bladder damage, known informally as “ketamine bladder.”
- A 2023 survey of more than 13,000 secondary school students found 11% of 15-year-olds had been offered the drug.
Government Data Confirms A Sharp Rise In Young Users
A United Kingdom government review found last-year ketamine use among people aged 16 to 59 in England and Wales nearly doubled in less than a decade, climbing from 160,000 people in 2014-15 to 299,000 in 2022-23. The same review found 4.3% of 16- to 24-year-olds reported using the drug in the 2023-24 national survey, confirming the sharpest growth sits squarely among young adults rather than the general population.
School-age data tells a similar story. An anonymous 2023 survey of more than 13,000 secondary school students across 185 schools in England found 11% of 15-year-olds had been offered ketamine at some point. Separate government figures show 0.9% of students in years 7 through 11, typically ages 11 to 15, reported using the drug in the last year, compared with just 0.4% to 0.5% between 2010 and 2016.
Treatment Numbers Climb As Hospitals Build New Clinics
The number of under-18s entering drug treatment in England who named ketamine as a problem substance jumped from 335 to 917 between 2020-21 and 2023-24, according to the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System. Government statistics show the share of young people in substance misuse treatment who cited ketamine rose from 1.3% in 2016-17 to 8.4% in 2023-24, a seven-point climb in seven years.
Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool opened what is believed to be the UK’s first clinic built specifically to treat minors struggling with ketamine use. Doctors there saw one young patient in 2023, nine in 2024, and then what they called “a rapid escalation” through 2025, prompting the clinic’s launch in May. Patients as young as 12 have sought help there, and the number of under-16s reporting problems with the drug has nearly doubled in two years, overtaking other substances among that age group.
Bladder Damage Emerges As A Defining Health Risk
Doctors and health officials repeatedly flag bladder damage as the drug’s most severe physical toll on young, chronic users. Ketamine, originally developed as an anesthetic for medical and veterinary use, can cause lasting harm to the bladder and kidneys when misused regularly. Government figures cited by regional reporters show ketamine use in England and Wales has more than doubled since 2016 and more than tripled among people under 25 in that same period.
Lancashire police have reported children as young as 12 becoming addicted, a sign the problem now reaches well below the legal drinking age. A BBC investigation into Burnley, Lancashire, documented families dealing with addiction and what reporters called its “life-changing impact” on young people and their households.
Health officials acknowledge gaps remain in understanding the drug’s long-term effects, since large-scale research on ketamine use disorder in the UK is still limited. Even so, the pattern across prevalence surveys, school data, and treatment records points the same direction: more young people are using the drug, and more are showing up at clinics built to treat the damage it leaves behind.
Sources:
youtube.com, bbc.co.uk, bbc.com, gov.uk, wchc.nhs.uk, assets-eu-01.kc-usercontent.com
