Darlington drug support charity helping ketamine users has 'doubled'
The number of ketamine users coming to With You for help has more than doubled in the last five years
A drug and alcohol support service in Darlington has been telling us the number of ketamine users coming to them for help has more than doubled in the last five years.
With You at STRIDE reckons those numbers could be more as people could be reluctant to seek help.
The charity offers a wide range of holistic support for individuals, friends, family and professionals.
They have also published their very first substance impact report which you can read here.
Jake Towns, young persons team leader at With You in Darlington, which is part of the STRIDE partnership, said: "Our numbers have more than doubled for ketamine users in the past five years, which indicates there's more people that are experimenting, they're trying the drug, and that could be if there is a cost benefit, so a much lower cost per gram than if you were to compare that with something like cocaine. So that might be actually pushing people into a market to try a drug, they might not necessarily try, of their own volition.
"It can cause chronic pain and one of the best pain relief methods for ketamine is more ketamine. What we hear from people that we work alongside is that normal over-the-counter pain management medication doesn't really have the same effect, so people are actually utilising more ketamine to counteract those side effects.
"We have seen an increase, but what I would caveat that with is it's not enough. We believe there's people out there for whatever reason that are reluctant to access support and as a service we're completely empathetic to that.
"We understand that there's a range of those health implications that can make it difficult for people to engage in sessions if they are needing to use a toilet frequently, if they are suffering from chronic pain. Sometimes people don't always recognise problematic use with ketamine. It becomes almost part of their life.
"If you are unsure or you're having those doubts, reach out to us. It might be a phone call, it might be one of our drop-in sessions, speaking to someone, going through your own journey, understanding your body and what it's telling you. Sometimes having that conversation can kind of really make you understand the risks.
"For a lot of people, ketamine is associated as a bit of a party drug. It's got that enjoyment factor attached to it. Now, if it's been disassociative, it has quite powerful effects. And a lot of the times people are reluctant to enter treatment because of the stigma that's wrapped around that substance specifically. We see it frequently and we see the health side effects. There's probably not a lot that we haven't seen.
"We carry out numerous drug aware sessions in primary schools and secondary schools. We've attended youth clubs recently just to kind of spread the message around the health impacts of ketamine because sometimes it's very short-term use which has really long-lasting effects.
"It's important to understand the risks if you are going to use something that you're well versed on what potentially could happen. Often what we find, especially in the secondary schools, is people are quite horrified when they see the effects and they see the videos of people that have been through recovery. And it's just knowledge, that's all it is.
"It's having open, transparent conversations and it's given that arena for people to be able to ask those questions as well. People might be thinking about using it and they might not be in front of that right person to ask those questions."
For more information and to get in touch for support, visit the With You website.
Meanwhile, we're hearing about the impact ketamine can have on young people across Teesside.
Simon Fulford, a consultant urological surgeon at the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, said: "Unfortunately, I'm seeing plenty of young people with problems with ketamine. The youngest patients I've treated have been 18, 19. The majority of patients I see with ketamine problems are in their early 20s.
"I've been involved with ketamine and the damage to the urinary system since 2008. In those days it was unusual and it was a developing problem, but now I'm afraid it's not that surprising to see young people with problems.
"If people start using it more regularly and more higher dose, then the bladder doesn't get a chance to recover. So there'll be major problems with a small, shrunken, very painful bladder, meaning that they have to pass urine every 10, 15, 20 minutes, day and night, and ultimately that also goes on to potentially damage the kidneys and the liver.
"For people who recognise it early and manage to stop, they can recover, but patients that continue to use a lot of ketamine will progress to the stage where their bladder will hold 50 mls, a tiny amount, and that will not recover even if they stop, even if we give them lots of drugs and so on.
"They may ultimately need to have the sort of surgery that I used to be only doing for older people who have cancer, so actually removing people's bladders, giving them abdominal stomas, so a bag on the tummy that collects the urine, is sometimes the only thing we can do to help these patients.
"I've, in the last six months, I've done those sorts of operations on maybe half a dozen patients in their 20s, early 20s. So these people are left with a lifelong external stoma at the age of 20 and that's devastating."