'Anaesthetic will have no effect, I'm so used to it'

Gerry Seenan

Clubbers who take ketamine say it gives them a more "trippy" clubbing experience than ecstasy.

Mark White, who is the author of an article on the drug for Druglink magazine, said: "I was given a tiny bump of K ... and remember walking in a straight line with great difficulty. I knew it was a straight line, but my eyes kept telling me I was walking a curve to the left."

Mr White says it became more common to see clubbers "slumped by the side of the dance floor" as ketamine use took off.

Friends of Mr White who have taken the drug report similar "trippy" experiences. "A friend working in a bar had to stop for an hour after having some. He didn't think his arms were long enough to reach into the coolers to get cans of beer, and the doors then became too heavy to open," he added.

Although drug workers say most ketamine users are weekend drug takers, there are some who develop ketamine habits

Jules, 30, told Druglink he had been using ketamine for seven years.

Although he has tried to give up, he says he still binges several times a month, taking around a gram of the drug each time.

"I know it's greedy, but I just like how I feel on it. You can really think on it," he said.

Neil, a soundman from London, got a taste for ketamine while travelling.

"Whenever I was travelling in India I used to order a load of phials of ketamine from a pharmacy, pour it all into empty rosewater bottles and send them back home.

"I ended up with piles of the stuff after cooking it up - it looked like mash potato.

"One time I took so much I couldn't see. I spent four days off my box. I'm worried that if I get operated on the anaesthetic will have no effect because my body's so used to it," he said.

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