Britain's Ketamine crisis: New research from Blackpool argues for a creative community-based approach to the growing crisis of ketamine use
What Do You Mean?
It’s not just a high—it’s a hush,
A break from the ache, the mental crush.
Not self-hate, it’s self-relief—
You say “abuse”… what do you mean?
But now the drug begins to bite,
K cramps hit me every night.
I need more just to feel serene—
You say “dependence”… what do you mean?
Excerpt from a poem by Wayne Anderson
ADASH family practitioner, Adolescence Service, Blackpool Council
New research published today highlights concerns that Ketamine use is a growing national public health crisis. Ketamine use in Blackpool: A Participatory Research Study, is a co-produced report bringing together insights from over 50 professionals and people with lived experience, from across Blackpool and the North West. Led by the Mobilising Community Assets team at UCL and the National Centre for Creative Health, in partnership with Blackpool Council and the University of Liverpool, the study provides a comprehensive look at the surge in ketamine use in Blackpool and beyond.
Last week’s Government update on ketamine use confirmed what many have feared for some time: the crisis is real, growing, and no longer hidden. The evidence is clear and effective action is needed. Ketamine is firmly in the national spotlight, driven by hard-hitting investigations like BBC Panorama and ITV’s ‘Inside the ketamine crisis gripping kids as young as 11’. These and other media stories reveal how deeply the drug is affecting young people. And the data is just as worrying: according to the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), ketamine use among under-17s has nearly doubled in just three years—from 4.5% to 8.4%.
This new report lays bare the real cost of ketamine, as well as the serious harm to young people’s health, and immense pressure on families, schools, communities and already overstretched local services:
They are all closely connected, a lot of people use drugs and fall into addiction as they want to ‘silence the noise in your head’ and ket really did this for me. I did not want to face my problems, it felt too much but ket had a way of just clearing that for me. If I had been able to get the right mental health support instead of using ket to block things out and help me put things into perspective and be able to open up about what has happened to me this would have helped me. Case study, ADASH Adolescence Service, Blackpool Council.
The research highlights that some of the most powerful local solutions are being driven by individuals, creativity, and lived experience. But for these innovations to truly grow, they need long-term investment, shared leadership, and proper recognition as vital parts of the wider system. The report is a call to act now, to collaborate, to work with communities, build trust, break stigma, and develop creative interventions that genuinely change lives.
The strength of Blackpool’s approach lies in the shared efforts of multidisciplinary team partners. To effectively address this health crisis we need genuine partnerships, shared accountability, and a willingness to work differently where needed. The NHS, local authority, voluntary and community organisations, police, and schools are most effective when they work alongside people with lived experience because no single organisation can meet this challenge alone. Those affected by ketamine use are central to this report" Dr Arif Rajpura (Director of Public Health, Blackpool Council), Councillor Jo Farrell (Blackpool Council, Cabinet Member for Communities and Wellbeing) & Neil Hartley-Smith (Chief Medical Officer, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust).
UCL’s Prof Helen Chatterjee MBE, and Mobilising Community Assets Programme Director, who is leading the study, is from Blackpool originally:
“As a Blackpudlian, it is devastating to hear firsthand the harm that ketamine is causing young people and the frustration surrounding the lack of a unified strategy or approach for supporting ketamine addiction. We urgently need a shift in how we tackle this crisis. We advocate for a multi-agency "Creative Health" approach, putting lived experience at the heart of designing prevention and intervention strategies. Moving forward, we are collaborating with creative, community and youth providers to co-produce local, community-based solutions for Blackpool.”
The work is being undertaken as part of a collaboration between 3 research initiatives: Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities, Coastal Communities and Creative Health and Blackpool Researching Together.
Read the report: McNeill, E., Mughal, R., Mezes, B., Wigglesworth, P., Anderson, W., Braithwaite, L., Boydell, S., Dartnell, S., Dempsey, Z., Flowers, S., Gordon, E., Gregory, M., Lee, L., Molyneux, C., Plumb, N.,Reeds, K., Richardson, S., Robinson, C., Santa, K., Tarpanian, B., Wilson, M. & Chatterjee, H.J. (2026) Ketamine use in Blackpool. A Participatory Research Study. London: University College London: Available here.
Supplementary material available here.
For further information contact Helen Chatterjee: h.chatterjee@ucl.ac.uk.
