{"id":6853,"date":"2025-07-18T18:21:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T18:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/6853\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T18:21:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T18:21:10","slug":"uk-seaside-town-facing-ketamine-crisis-as-experts-raise-alarm-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/6853\/","title":{"rendered":"UK seaside town facing \u2018ketamine crisis\u2019 as experts raise alarm | UK | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A popular UK seaside town<\/a> is facing a health crisis as the use of Ketamine drug<\/a> has reportedly increased among the youngsters. The matter was raised in the latest meeting of Blackpool<\/a> Council’s Health and Wellbeing Board this week on Wednesday (July 16).<\/p>\n

Ketamine was first created as a powerful anaesthetic, notably used to treat US soldiers during the Vietnam War.\u00a0 It typically appears as a clear liquid or a white to off-white powder. At present, it\u2019s sometimes employed by the NHS and serves as a pain reliever for large animals such as horses. But, the drug’s euphoric and hallucinogenic effects have led to its misuse as a recreational substance.<\/p>\n

Dr Arif Rajpura, Director of Public Health at Blackpool Council, stated: “Figures for cocaine and ketamine are up in Blackpool. The effects of ketamine on the bladder are well known and we are slowly starting to see that now.”<\/p>\n

Dr Neal Hartley-Smith, Chief Medical Officer at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and a local GP, told Daily Star<\/a>: “We’re seeing more cases, male and female, and that’s driving up the use of stronger opiates to deal with the pain being caused by ketamine.”<\/p>\n

Amy Butler, from Healthwatch Blackpool told the publication: “We’re seeing a lot of ketamine and it’s very concerning. I think we will be seeing the effects of this coming up in the next few years.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the latest government data, the usage of Ketamine\u00a0among 16-24 year olds in England has tripled since 2016, with an estimated 269,000 people aged between 16-59 reporting its use up until early last year.<\/p>\n

Long-term misuse of ketamine can harm vital organs such as the kidneys, liver, and bladder. It may also trigger a rapid heartbeat, seizures, high blood pressure, and breathing difficulties.<\/p>\n

One severe condition, known as \u2018ketamine bladder,\u2019 involves intense inflammation and damage to the bladder, often causing pain and urinary issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With an aim to tackle the issue of drug abuse in the resort, experts have recently inaugurated a new drug and alcohol Recovery Hub in Blackpool.<\/p>\n

The initiative is a joint endeavour between Blackpool Council’s Public Health Department, Blackpool Coastal Housing, Delphi Medical Ltd, and the Empowerment Charity.<\/p>\n

This centre seeks to offer a secure and inclusive environment for people in recovery, providing a variety of evidence-based initiatives, peer support, and community engagement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A popular UK seaside town is facing a health crisis as the use of Ketamine drug has reportedly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3929,3932,3934,3933,2505,59,57,58,50,3883,56,3930,3931,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-6853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-blackpool","9":"tag-blackpool-drug-issue","10":"tag-blackpool-latest","11":"tag-blackpool-seaside-town","12":"tag-drugs","13":"tag-gb","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-greatbritain","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-towns","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-uk-seaside-town","20":"tag-uk-seaside-town-latest","21":"tag-united-kingdom","22":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}