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The Story

How ketamine’s on the rise and getting into the UK

The Story

[email protected]

Politics, Daily News, News

41.5K Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Recreational use of the Class B drug doubled in 2024. A Sunday Times investigation has looked into where it's coming from and why it's so hard to police.

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestory


Guest: Katie Gatens, Commissioning Editor, The Sunday Times News Review.

Host: Manveen Rana.

Producer: Olivia Case.

Further reading: One gram of ketamine and its 4,000-mile journey to the UK. 

Further listening: The truth behind the drama Adolescence

If you or someone you know needs drugs help or advice, visit talktofrank.com

Photo: Getty Images. 

Get in touch: [email protected]


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

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0:00.0

You want work to be less hard work.

0:02.0

You hear an ad for MHR, so you reach out.

0:04.6

We connect your department systems, which leads to real-time data sharing that uncovers new insights,

0:10.3

which empower your decision makers and triple monthly sales, which leads to high fives and awkward hugs.

0:17.5

You say a big thank you. We say you're welcome.

0:24.8

MHR, the science behind HR, payroll and finance.

0:30.0

The science behind a new world of work. Discover more at mhrr global.com.

0:40.2

From the times and the Sunday times, this is the story. I'm Manvien Rana.

0:53.4

So it was the early hours of the morning on December 4th, 2023, and a young Dutch man in a white transit van is waiting to board the Channel Tunnel on the French side to go to the UK.

1:02.2

The guy was called Mika Vorhans.

1:04.9

He was 21 from a small town in the Netherlands.

1:08.1

And it was a cold pull.

1:09.6

The UK border police thought that his van

1:12.8

looked suspicious and decided to pull him over and check the inside. And he told the police that he was

1:18.8

heading to Coventry to pick up a secondhand motorbike for a friend of a friend. They weren't so sure.

1:26.2

So when they checked on the inside of his van, they found some

1:29.9

plywood that had been hastily sort of fixed to the side, inside of his van. And when they removed

1:36.4

this plywood, they found 100 kilograms of ketamine. It was one of the biggest ever seizures of ketamine heading to the UK.

1:46.7

The street value would have been about £4 million. Ketamine is on the rise in Britain.

2:09.6

The figures have exploded, with the recreational use of the drug doubling in a year,

2:16.6

and addiction levels rapidly rising. It's become such an issue.

2:21.7

There's even talk of reclassifying it from a class B to a class A drug. But where is it coming from?

...

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