{"id":825025,"date":"2026-03-14T10:12:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T10:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/825025\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T10:12:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T10:12:18","slug":"inside-liverpools-battle-to-curb-growing-ketamine-usage-as-teens-turn-to-drug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/825025\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Liverpool’s battle to curb growing ketamine usage as teens turn to drug"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experts have warned there is no “one size fits all” response to the growth of ketamine use\"liverpoolecho\"<\/p>\n

09:13, 14 Mar 2026Updated 09:13, 14 Mar 2026<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Users in Liverpool are as young as 14(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The first time people in Liverpool use ketamine is often between the ages of 14 and 16<\/a> with fears there could be more young users in the city than is being reported to schools. Families also report uncertainty about how to spot warning signs and where to find support, as experts have warned there is no \u201cone size fits all\u201d as to how the drug can impact users.<\/p>\n

This new information has prompted the city council<\/a> to launch an action plan with partners from Merseyside Police, the city\u2019s university and drug and alcohol treatment services, to address the \u201cemerging and complex issue.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Nationally, ketamine availability and use have been reported as growing concerns, with increasing treatment presentations and health complications in several areas. While the frequency of use remains lower than for some other substances, ketamine can cause serious and fast-developing harms, particularly among younger people.<\/p>\n

Professor Harry Sumnall, Professor of Substance Use at Liverpool John Moores University, said studies conducted in the city\u2019s schools may not be painting the full picture on how young people are accessing the drug.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIn terms of national patterns of use, we\u2019ve seen a sharp increase in ketamine use and harms from about 10 years ago. Increasingly we found, in particular cities and Liverpool\u2019s not unique, but it\u2019s a city that\u2019s perhaps focussed on this more of a concern because there\u2019s been lots of community concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiverpool is not necessarily experiencing a greater level of harm than other cities but saying that we have seen a real increase in the number of treatment presentations. That\u2019s in both adults and younger age groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the harms do tend to be focussed and perhaps those in the early to mid 20s, but that\u2019s in keeping with other drugs. In Liverpool, there have been some school surveys and that suggests that maybe less than 1% of under 18s have used ketamine.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, I think that\u2019s a big underestimate simply because of levels of availability, affordability, and some of the national data as well but it kind of highlights, we don\u2019t have an indication of the true picture of ketamine related harm across the population.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s lots of different reasons why people use drugs. They are consumer goods to a certain extent, but they\u2019re quite unique consumer goods, like other consumer goods, people are affected by price and availability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although overall treatment numbers remain lower than for some other substances, the severity of harms associated with ketamine, particularly bladder and urinary damage, has highlighted the need to shift towards prevention and early intervention.<\/p>\n

Unlike other substances where established pathways already exist, ketamine presents further challenges including patterns of use, rapid escalation, and serious physical harms which are different to other drugs.<\/p>\n

Liverpool\u2019s action plan sets out a framework for awareness campaigns, school engagement, peer-led support, strengthened treatment pathways, safeguarding work, and coordinated monitoring to track the impact of ketamine use and improve outcomes for people caught up in ketamine addiction.<\/p>\n

\"Liverpool's<\/p>\n

Liverpool’s Director of Public Health Matt Ashton<\/p>\n

Professor Matt Ashton is Liverpool\u2019s director of public health. He said: \u201cWe\u2019re very used to dealing with numbers and statistics, but actually, it is so important to remember that you\u2019re talking about real people and people\u2019s lives and harm that they are experiencing, poor physical health, poor mental health that sits underneath each and every one of those statistics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are kids. These are like really young people who are experimenting and trying with stuff that can have significant harm on them.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople try stuff, everyone tries things when they\u2019re younger and experiments and all that kind of stuff, but the trouble is ketamine can cause significant harm. If you think about people starting at the age of 17 and think about at least a quarter and up to over half of regular users experienced bladder issues, they are ruining their bladders by taking this drug.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you hear the real life stories, they\u2019re quite shocking and people in significant pain, not really knowing how to deal with the pain, sometimes needing medical interventions like bladder removal, struggling to mix with their friends, to socialise, to do the things that they were doing previously, to do stuff that helps you in your in your life because they\u2019re embarrassed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey feel stigmatised, they are worried that people are judging them but they\u2019re also worried about going out when they\u2019ve got physical issues that they need to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the partner organisations teaming up with the city council is RIVER, Liverpool\u2019s drug and alcohol support service.<\/p>\n

\"Ketamine<\/p>\n

Ketamine in powder form(Image: Merseyside Police)<\/p>\n

Zac McMasters, head of services for the North West, said: \u201cNot one organisation can really tackle this on their own. We can do our bit, but we need a team approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

James Mahwinney is the ketamine lead for RIVER. He said up to 60% of users experience frequent bladder problems as a result and more use could lead to \u201cdevastating\u201d impacts. He said: \u201cWe\u2019ve got to make sure that we send the right message to people because what we\u2019ve got to recognise is that the majority of people who use ketamine do so on an infrequent basis.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously we\u2019ve got to promote messages around health, but we\u2019ve got to be careful about how we do that because it runs a risk of scaring people who are not maybe as impacted thinking \u2018I don\u2019t get those severe bladder problems, so I\u2019m all right, and I don\u2019t need help.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve also got to send another message to say for those who are using less frequently, when you maybe start to experience some of the physical health impacts that ketamine can bring that you\u2019re accessing care and support and treatment earlier on, not when it\u2019s too late, which is what we\u2019ve seen a pattern of is these people are coming into us in crisis when they\u2019ve got significant health problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zac said: \u201cI think what\u2019s pretty unique about ketamine is how quickly the damage can be done in comparison to other substances and the level you can reach more permanent damage.\u201d James added how there can be other physical issues emerging as a result of ketamine use, including weight loss, nasal problems as well as damage to the kidneys and liver.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThere\u2019s no one size fits all with it. We can\u2019t say the length of time someone\u2019s using, for example, that\u2019s got to then result in these health problems because we\u2019ve seen people who\u2019d been using for a long period of time and they\u2019ve experienced health problems later and we\u2019ve seen people who\u2019ve been using for short periods of time and claiming something really quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Experts have warned there is no “one size fits all” response to the growth of ketamine use 09:13,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":825026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,4884,29421,179,14487,11653,16,15],"class_list":["post-825025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-liverpool","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-ketamine","tag-liverpool","tag-liverpool-council","tag-premium","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116226998760305918","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=825025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/825026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}