National Crime Agency exposes increasing ketamine use in England amid surge in ‘drug cocktails’
by Tony Diver, Associate Political Editor, The Telegraph (London) 21 February 2025
Drug use in England
Ketamine
2023: 10,600 kilograms consumed
2024: 24,800 kilograms consumed
Hotspots: Norwich, Liverpool and Wakefield
Street value: Unknown
Cocaine
2023: 87,600 kilograms consumed
2024: 96,000 kilograms consumed
Hotspots: Liverpool and Newcastle
Street value: £7.7 billion
Heroin
2023: 25,300 kilograms consumed
2024: 22,400 kilograms consumed
Hotspots: Liverpool and Birmingham
Street value: £1.1 billion
Ketamine usage more than doubled in England last year amid the rising popularity of designer “drug cocktails”, The Telegraph can reveal.
The largest and most accurate study of its kind, conducted on behalf of the National Crime Agency (NCA), has exposed a dramatic rise in the popularity of the drug.
Almost 25 tonnes of ketamine were consumed in England last year, up from 10.6 tonnes in 2023.
The drug is now more popular than heroin, with the worst hotspots in Norwich, Liverpool, and Wakefield.
The findings are revealed in Home Office data, seen by The Telegraph, which will form part of the NCA’s annual threat assessment next week.
The agency, dubbed Britain’s FBI, will warn of a rise in the use of several recreational drugs in Britain, including a 10 per cent increase in cocaine.
The sharp increase in the prevalence of ketamine on Britain’s streets is thought to be driven by drug cocktails, including “pink cocaine” – a combination of ketamine and other substances taken by Liam Payne, the One Direction star, before his death last year.
Payne, who fell to his death from a hotel balcony in Argentina in October last year, had taken a mixture of methamphetamine, ketamine and MDMA along with crack cocaine and benzodiazepine before he died, a toxicology report found.
Liam Payne reportedly had ‘pink cocaine’ along with other drugs in his system when he fell to his death in Buenos Aires Credit: Marc Piasecki/GC Images
Mixing ketamine and other drugs can produce hallucinogenic effects, but presents a greater risk to partygoers because the substances can be laced with even stronger narcotics including fentanyl.
The Home Office sampled wastewater from 18 treatment plants across England and Scotland over three years to build the most accurate picture of drug consumption in Britain ever compiled.
The samples, which covered wastewater from more than a quarter of the population, were analysed and scaled up by scientists from Imperial College London.
Previous estimates were based on the quantity of drugs seized by police and self-reported drug surveys, which are less accurate.
The final report found that almost 100 tonnes of cocaine were consumed in England alone last year, up from 88 tonnes in 2023.
Liverpool and Newcastle were the heaviest consumers of cocaine. Usage peaked in London during Christmas, the Euro 2024 football tournament and the Eurovision song contest.
Adjusted for purity, quantities of cocaine consumed in England last year had an estimated street value of £7.7 billion.
That figure is almost double the NCA’s previous estimate and the equivalent of £100 spent on cocaine each year by every person in the country.
Over the same period, heroin consumption is estimated to have decreased by 11 per cent, from 25,300 kilograms in 2023 to 22,400 kilograms in 2024. The highest rates were measured in wastewater from Liverpool and Birmingham.
Experts have previously warned of the dangers of trendy designer drug cocktails, including pink cocaine and “Calvin Klein” or “CK”, which refers to a mixture of cocaine and ketamine.
The combination of drugs can make it more difficult for users to know what substances they have taken.
CK, which is growing in popularity in the UK, has been blamed for overdoses among young people in nightclubs.
It comes as in this week’s Crime and Policing Bill, the Government will propose banning “cuckooing” – when criminals seize a vulnerable person’s home and use it as a drug den or for other illegal activity.
The Home Secretary will also propose new measures to jail those convicted of using children for crime Credit: Jacob King
Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, will also propose a new offence of child criminal exploitation, which is thought to affect around 14,500 children each year.
Under the new measures, people convicted of using children for crime, including county lines drug dealing, will face ten years in prison.
Ms Cooper said: “The exploitation of children and vulnerable people for criminal gain is sickening and it is vital we do everything in our power to eradicate it from our streets.
“As part of our Plan for Change, we are introducing these two offences to properly punish those who prey on them, ensure victims are properly protected and prevent these often-hidden crimes from occurring in the first place.
“These steps are vital in our efforts to stop the grooming and exploitation of children into criminal gangs, deliver on our pledge to halve knife crime in the next decade and work towards our overall mission to make our streets safer.”
Ministers and the NCA are also concerned about the rise of drug importers, who bring classified substances into the UK through weaker entry points and sell them to distributors around the country.
Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/21/true-scale-uk-illegal-drug-use/