A teenage ketamine addict from Warrington, Cheshire, recounts the harrowing moment that spurred him on to seek help, after his mother captured him on video high from the substance.
Nineteen year old Daniel Davies found himself snorting an astonishing five grams of ketamine daily; a habit that not only drained his pockets but led him to sacrifice his PlayStation 5 console for more of the class B drug when he first entered rehab. The exchange did not go unnoticed, resulting in his expulsion from the rehabilitation facility.
Julie Williams, the 43 year old mother of Daniel, decided to film her son upon his return from a drug-induced escapade when he was 17. The distressing footage showed him in a daze, with his mum’s voice punctuating the scene, questioning “what are you doing, what are you actually doing?”.
Reflecting on his addiction, Daniel disclosed: “When I was off the drugs, it made me feel like s***, I hated it, but I couldn’t stop doing it. For everyone else, it was awful – I was just a liability, they always had their eyes on me 24/7. My mum started sleeping on the landing outside my bedroom door. I was getting kicked out from house to house.”
Despite being taken in by friends and relatives who imposed strict no-drug policies, Daniel couldn’t resist the pull – smuggling ketamine into their homes and surreptitiously using it. He confessed: “I’d say ‘I won’t’, and I’d go in and have ket in my boxers. I’d go off to the toilet and sniff it. It’s not the kind of drug you can get away with when you’re on, especially not when you’re doing that much. The way you look on it is awful.”, reports the Mirror.
Daniel first dabbled with ketamine at the tender age of 15, introduced to it by a mate. Yet, it wasn’t until he was 16 and reeling from a friend’s suicide that he succumbed to addiction.
He recounted: “I started using it every day. I couldn’t get out of the cycle. My mum was trying everything – she didn’t know for a good while. My mum didn’t know about it for a year, I flew under the bus for a year. When she found out she was trying everything she could.
“She started becoming ill from what I was doing, thinking I was going to kill myself. I’d tell her I was going to stop, then I’d stop it for like two days and then I’d be back on it again, the cycle just kept going.”
Despite suffering severe weight loss among other side-effects, Daniel’s addiction saw him snorting up to five grams – that’s £40 worth – of ketamine daily.
He explained: “I didn’t get to the point where I was weeing blood, but my wee felt like razor blades on the end of my penis. I would often get constipated, I was doing regular hospital visits – but the hospital can’t really do anything. I had stomach cramps, so if I had an extra mouthful when I ate I’d throw up.”
His grip on normality slipping, Daniel even risked his job by taking the drug at work, during his electrical apprenticeship on building sites. He recounted his harrowing experience: “I’d be nipping off to the portaloo, doing bumps of ket, walking around the site where big machinery was driving about – putting myself in danger and other people. I just could not stop using no matter what.”
Daniel’s turning point came when his mother witnessed a news segment on Elisha House recovery centre in Colne, Lancs, prompting him to seek help.
His journey to sobriety hit a snag when he was expelled from rehab for exchanging his PlayStation 5 for four ounces of the drug, but he returned with a renewed resolve to beat his addiction.
Now boasting nearly 90 days free from ketamine, Daniel feels ’10 times better’ and has seen his weight increase from under nine stone to over 11 stone.
Reflecting on his ordeal, he shared: “They kicked me out for a week, and then I thought ‘I can’t do this any more’. I came back and now I think I’m 86 days clean. I couldn’t get four days out there, so I had to be taken away, it had to be done. Reach out for help, there’s a lot more people than you think going through the same thing. When I was doing it I thought I was the only one, I thought I was on my own – but you’re not.
“I’ve learnt it’s OK to talk, there’s a lot more people going through the same thing you’re going through. Just reach out for help.”
In Lancashire, home to Elisha House, local councillors have raised alarms about a ‘ketamine crisis’ gripping the area.
To combat this and other substance abuse issues, the government has allocated a £10.6 million grant to Lancashire, aimed at reducing drug and alcohol-related fatalities and supporting those battling addiction.
The Office for National Statistics has revealed that 2.9% of 16 to 24 year olds reported using ketamine between April 2023 and March 2024, a slight decrease from the previous year’s record high of 3.8% for the same age group.
Earlier this year, the Home Office announced its intention to seek expert advice on potentially reclassifying the drug from its current controlled Class B status to the more serious Class A.
At present, the maximum penalty for supplying and producing Ketamine is up to 14 years in prison, an unlimited fine, or both.