Ketamine: Misuse
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of reclassifying Ketamine from a Class B to Class A drug.
Answered by Sarah Jones
Ketamine is a dangerous substance, which can cause irreversible bladder damage and in some cases death. Ministers are concerned about the harms ketamine causes and on 16 October 2025 the Department for Health and Social Care launched a campaign to alert young people to its dangers.
In January 2025 the Government asked the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) to provide an updated harms assessment of ketamine, advice on reducing those harms and whether ketamine should be moved from Class B to Class A within the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.
The ACMD carried out a public call for evidence in August 2025, and we expect to receive its report soon. We will then carefully consider its recommendations.
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