Ketamine-related admissions for treatment have almost tripled in three years, Ireland’s Health Research Body (HRB) has reported.
According to HRB figures seen by The Times, the number of people seeking help to get off the illegal class B drug increased from 95 in 2021 to 251 in 2024.
Last year, The Labour Party called on the Irish Government to decriminalise all drugs for personal use and open more shooting galleries for addicts.
Mainstream
Nicki Killeen, a Project Manager on Emerging Drug Trend Programmes in the Health Service Executive, said: “What we’re seeing is probably the largest and most sustained increase in ketamine use.”
“That’s what’s different from the past — it’s no longer niche or subcultural. Ketamine is now positioned across all nightlife settings and across all user groups.”
She explained: “People are also experiencing severe mental health issues from ketamine; adverse reactions, disassociation and very extreme panic.”
Consultant urologist Dr Eabhann O’Connor warned that chronic ketamine use can ultimately lead to “end-stage bladder dysfunction”, which in turn “can lead to high pressures in the kidneys and even kidney failure and dialysis being required”.
Online market
The Irish Daily Mail recently found that teenagers as young as 15 are buying drugs online, including heroin and cocaine, through an unnamed social media shop for as little as €40.
Maebh Mullany, CEO of rehabilitation facility the Rutland Centre, believes that drug use is now widespread: “You hear from people that are coming in from treatment that it’s literally everywhere. It’s in the lockers, it’s in school, it’s after sport.”
“We even hear from clients coming into treatment that there’s an app that people can use to order as well to be delivered by drones.”
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