'A very high-risk drug' - Warning over ketamine as its popularity rockets among young people

Ketamine is a powerful anaesthetic, commonly thought of as a horse tranquilliser, which has hallucinogenic properties

While 24% of respondents in Ireland reported using ketamine in the last year, just 13% of respondents across other European countries reported using it over the same period. File Picture: iStock

Drawn by the lights of a distant toll booth, a young man walked along the white lines of the M50 motorway, locked in a ketamine trance.

He was high on a drug which more than one third of 18–24-year-old males in Ireland have admitted to using last year in an EU-wide survey on drug use. The young man escaped death or devastating injury when he was rescued by gardaí.