What is Ketamine? Party drug popular on university campuses is causing sudden deaths

Going to university is a big feat, one that deserves all the celebrations that follow. Imagine giving countless interviews, writing and editing numerous essays all to get into your dream college and receive a degree that your parents would be proud of.But new journeys often come with unprecedented turns of events and chances that change people and their lives within minutes. Like getting invited to your first-ever college party and agreeing to just that one drink that no one would know about. It could contain anything, any drug that is popular in the market and as of now, ketamine.

The K-hole

Also known as “Ket” or “K’ it is a dissociative anaesthetic that distorts perceptions of sight and sound, and a class B controlled substance.

The former of its properties, is what seems to be the cause behind its surge in popularity in Gen Z parties.According to research by Gladstones, a private rehab clinic, people between the ages of 16 and 24 are the heaviest users of the drug in the UK, with a usage rate of 3.2% in 2023. “Research from Manchester Metropolitan University shows that the age of onset — when young people try a drug — has been going down,” said Karenza Moore, a reader in sociology at Newcastle University who has spent two decades researching young people’s drug use to The Sunday Times.

In the US, a study reported that Americans turn to “Special K” for kicks. Recreational use of the drug increased 40% between 2021 and 2022. “At higher doses, a person may experience extreme detachment from their body and reality, which is called being in a k-hole,” the NIDA’s website on ketamine says.High-profile influential personalities have also talked about using the drug for treating depression such as Elon Musk.

However, they have also been the ones who suffered from its side effects such as Friends actor Matthew Perry, a habitual ketamine user who died at his home in LA after being injected with an accidentally high dose by his live-in assistant. Furthermore in January 2025, drag artist James Lee Williams suffered a cardiorespiratory arrest after taking the drug and was found dead in his home in Cheshire.

What is Ketamine?

Ketamine is a licensed drug first developed in the 1960s for general anesthetic use in both humans and animals.

It is now sometimes used in smaller doses as a painkiller by NHS doctors.How it affects you will depend on the dosage, your size and past experiences of tolerance with the drug along with if you use it with other substances. Typically snorted as a powder, the drug makes you feel like you are floating outside your body or dissolving into the environment.There have also been cases of agonising abdominal pains or “K cramps” as the system tries to break down the drug. Chronic use of the drug damages the bladder, decreasing its capacity to hold urine. With no place to go, the urine goes back to the kidneys and can even fail them.