Now criminal gangs supplying the drug have been hit after officers from the Merseyside Organised Crime Partnership (OCP) stopped a van on the East Lancashire Road in Merseyside on Tuesday and found 35 sacks filled with around 875kg of ketamine in the back. A 46-year-old man from Liverpool, who was driving the van, was arrested and taken into custody for questioning, the National Crime Agency (NCA) have said.

The operation was carried out by a team of investigators from the NCA and Merseyside Police with support from Merseyside Police Matrix Disruption Team, who tackle high-risk organised crime in the county.

Det Ch Insp Tony Roberts, of the Merseyside Organised Crime Partnership, said they had made a significant seizure of a drug which was posing an increasing threat to UK communities.

"Our operation has ensured that this large quantity of ketamine will never make it on to UK streets and endanger drug users," he said.

"Merseyside OCP is working relentlessly to identify and arrest organised criminals who are profiting from the destruction and violence caused by the drugs trade."

Originally an anaesthetic from the 1960s, ketamine was used as surgical anaesthesia by the US in the Vietnam War.

Now it's normally used on animals but the sedative's hallucinogenic effects make it a popular party drug, and it is also one of the most common substances found in drink-spiking crimes.

In January 2025, the UK Government proposed reclassifying ketamine from a Class B to a Class A drug, citing rising levels of use and associated health harms - requesting a review by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD).

Reclassification would raise the maximum penalty for possession from 5 to 7 years in prison. The maximum sentence for supply would be raised from 14 years to life, putting it on a par with maximum penalties for murder, rape and genocide.

In April, the Daily Express highlighted the ketamine crisis after one of Britain's top rehab clinics said their cases have doubled - as thousands play "Russian roulette" with their lives.

And shockingly they told us how patients aged just 21 are even wearing incontinent pads, as long-term use of the sedative drug causes irreversible bladder and kidney damage.

Last November, a coroner in Manchester demanded ketamine be re-classified after entrepreneur Jamie Boland, 38, died of sepsis from a kidney infection caused by "long-term use of ketamine".

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