COSMOPOLITAN · 85gro i ea. ee s eri g
from depression and anxiety since
she was a teenager. “I saw a therapist
and got into meditation, which
helped, but I was still very panicky
most of the time. I worried about
everything. I was always close to tears.”
Nadia believes the combination
of psychedelics and therapy has
transformed her outlook. “For weeks
after, I felt calmer,” she says. “I still
feel down sometimes – but I’m less
worried about life and am a lot
easier on myself. I don’t think
anything else would have
recentred me like that.” Nadia
may have felt safe, and in the
Netherlands the retreat was
legal, but it was also unregulated
and offered little aftercare.
Others aren’t always so lucky.
Doctors also fear that
self-medication could now
be leading to a rise in illegal
ketamine use – Home Office
figures show that police seizures
of the drug increased by 30% last
year. The main difference between
ketamine administered professionally
and taken illegally is the dose. In
a clinical setting, patients are given
between 0.5mg and 0.6mg of
ketamine per kilogram of body weight
over the course of an hour. Taken
recreationally, users snort the drug in
powder form and tend to take much
more (100 to 250mg is a heavy dose)
over a shorter period. This increases
the chance of major health issues –
ith ongoing ketamine users being
reated for a range of issues, including
otal loss of bladder function.
Given the dangers of unregulated
elf-prescription of ketamine, magic
ushrooms and MDMA, should we
e moving towards a society where
club drugs” are available to those
ho need them – in a safe, medical
nvironment? And, if so, what impact
ill that have on the way society views
hese drugs, and their users? Since the
se of medicinal products derived
rom cannabis was approved last year,
preconceived ideas of the drug have
started to shift. While medicinal
marijuana remains near-impossible
to come by, the CBD (cannabinoid,
the non-psychoactive ingredient in
marijuana) market is expected to
be worth £16 billion by 2024 in the
US.** CBD usage spans generations- from those using it to treat anxiety
to long-term chronic pain relief. Can
we expect the same attitudinal shift
with psychedelics? Both critics and
champions of these treatments seem
to think so. Some fear
we don’t know enough
about the addictive
properties of medicinal
psychedelics and worry
we could open the UK
up to an addiction crisis
akin to the opioid one
in the US. Others argue
that we’re at breaking
point, with suicide rates
for young people in
some parts of the country now at
their highest in over a decade.†† If a
treatment exists that could help lower
this, shouldn’t we at least look into it?
For Samantha, this is the sticking
point. The treatment she received is
still so expensive that it is prohibitive
for many. “Things are looking up for
me, but I think a lot about the people
who can’t afford the treatment that
changed my life,” she says. “I still think
back to my first treatment, when I told
my kingdom everything would get
better. Turns out I was right.” ◆
“Illegal
ketamine
use is now
on the rise”READBEHINDTHESCENESLaura Silverman
“I was blown away hearing
how much ketamine therapy
has helped so many people. Yet almost
everyone I spoke to for this piece – from
Lina to top-notch scientists – worried about
the stigma surrounding the drug, despite
seeing its benefits first-hand.”KETAMINE
BY NUMBERS
1970
When ketamine was first licensed
for use as an anaesthetic. It’s now
widely used in hospitals for this
purpose. It can also be used legally
as an antidepressant in the UK, if
applied in a clinical setting. This
is known as “off label”.Five years
How long you could spend in prison
if found in possession of ketamine
illegally. When used recreationally,
it’s a class-B drug.2.7 million
Roughly the number of people
in the UK with chronic depression
who have not responded to
traditional treatment.5,821
The approximate number of
registered deaths by suicide in the
UK in 2017. Many doctors believe
that ketamine treatments can help
those with suicidal thoughts.100+
The number of clinics in the USA
where ketamine is administered as
a treatment for chronic depression.
NICE is due to decide whether to
approve the drug for NHS use
in March next year.Samantha, five months
post-treatment