Finley Worthington, 25, was addicted to ketamine for six years - sniffing more than seven grams of the drug a day at his lowest point.
He revealed how his nightmare began after taking the hallucinogenic at a music festival in 2018. He said: “At my worst, I made peace with the fact that I was going to have a bag and I was going to die. The only thing that mattered to me was having some powder to sniff and to get that escape.
"But the addiction destroyed every aspect of my life. There were weeks where I wouldn't leave my bedroom because I was taking ketamine. It caused stomach pain which left me in agony but I felt the only way to deal with it was to have more.” Finley said ketamine use was rife among his social circles - and that he was aware of the drug being confiscated in schools from children aged as young as 12.
He said: “Drugs come in generations. And unfortunately, for this younger generation now, ketamine is the go-to. Young people think they're invincible and that having a bag will be fine. And it might be for a certain amount of time. But I know people in their 20s who have urine bags now because their bladders have given up.
“I know a girl who's on dialysis for her kidneys. I know a young lad who has been passing out when he goes to the toilet because he's having to squeeze that hard. I heard all that when I was taking it. I heard people telling me 'you're going to end up with a bag' but I just chose to ignore it.
“That's what addiction does. It puts you in that mindset of 'that won't happen to me and I'll stop tomorrow’. There are schools where they've taken ketamine off children as young as 12. It's a proper hidden epidemic. These young kids don't even know they're in the cycle. They think they've got control and one day they will want to stop but can't.”
Finley has been drug-free for nine months after quitting his home town of Burnley, Lancashire, for a new start in Stockport, Cheshire. He warned that the falling cost of ketamine was driving use among younger people.
He said: “Drug dealers just go wherever the money is. The price of ketamine has fallen from £70 to £20 for an eighth (3.5 grams). They're all undercutting each other and the quality has got much worse because they want to keep the profit margin.
"You don't really know what you're taking. You can taste salt in it. You can taste the MSG in the cutting agents. Young people will think nothing of going out and chucking a tenner in each for a bag a ketamine. It's a proper hidden epidemic." Finley is now studying counselling and is running the Ketamine Care Hub and has set up the Ketamine Education Service on Social Media to help others addicted to the drug.
He said: “I sacrificed my life for ketamine. Relationships broke down, friendships, financial status - all that sort of stuff broke down, as well as my mental and physical health. I risked it all just for Ketamine. I've had to flip my life around just to have a chance.”
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