The Ketamine trail

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

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Summary

Ketamine was designed as an anaesthetic but its use as a recreational drug is growing fast, particularly among young people. In the UK, it’s doubled in less than ten years but it can cause serious side effects. The supply chain for the drug starts with pharmaceutical manufacturers in India then involves criminal gangs in Europe who use front companies to legally import vast quantities of the drug before flooding it onto the illegal market in the UK. Paul Kenyon investigates the trade.

This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the documentary on the BBC World Service.
0:03.6	The synthetic drug ketamine first grabbed my attention with the death of American actor Matthew Perry.
0:10.0	And when I tuned into how many other ketamine users were dying or being hospitalized,
0:15.0	I wanted to discover where the drug was coming from and why it was so easy to obtain.
0:23.4	Yeah, Foxx-8. We're turning with that second vehicle to stop for the industrial estate,
0:28.3	white powder, large amounts.
0:30.2	We're on the trail of the UK's fastest growing drug.
0:34.2	Yeah, just confirmed one box opened and a large quantity of white powder.
0:38.5	I put that in.
0:39.7	That will come up with specifically ketamine.
0:41.5	So this emoji is code between people who know, and it stands for you want ketamine.
0:46.2	Yeah.
0:46.5	Ketamine claimed the life of the American actor Matthew Perry,
0:50.3	raising the profile of the drug and the damage that it can cause.
0:54.5	But for the dealers, they've never had it so good.
0:57.7	Criminal gangs can make more profit at this moment from doing business with ketamine than with cocaine.
1:02.7	We're following the supply routes across Europe.
1:05.5	It has a treat value of approximately 55 million euros.
1:09.2	Places where it's not even classified as a narcotic.
1:12.9	But it's like ketamine is also a medicine.
1:15.7	So where's it made?
1:17.2	And why does no one seem able to stop it?
	...

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