USERS PAY HEAVY PRICE FOR CHEAP PARTY DRUG

Animal Tranquillizer Found To Produce Serious Impairment Of Kidney,
Bladder And Liver.

Revellers across Asia who snort the animal tranquillizer ketamine for
a hallucinogenic high may face incontinence and other health problems
as new dangers of this cheap party drug start showing up in long-term
studies.

Doctors in Hong Kong, where ketamine took off as a party drug about a
decade ago, have recently found that heavy users have poor bladder
control and are prone to long-term liver damage.

"The worst cases are in young people who have to empty their bladders
every 15 minutes. They can't even take a bus ride without alighting
and going to the toilet," said Ben Cheung, a psychiatrist who works
with ketamine users.

"Their kidney functions are affected and they are so young. This is a
serious health consequence that we never expected because it has never
been seen anywhere else."

Incontinence is not the only problem for these drug users, who sniff
the powdery hallucinogenic that looks much like cocaine but costs 10
per cent of the price.

A recent study in Hong Kong of 97 drug users, most of whom primarily
took ketamine, found that over 60 per cent of them suffered
depression, 31 per cent complained of poor concentration and 23 per
cent had memory problems.

"It shocked the users. Never did they think it would affect brain
function and they care about that," said Tatia Lee, who was a member
of the team conducting the study.

Ketamine users usually mix the drug, synthesized in 1962 as an
veterinary anesthetic, with other substances. To increase profits,
dealers add powder from paint scraped off walls, chalk and crushed
glass which gives the same shimmer of good quality ketamine.

"It's difficult to pin certain effects to a drug but ketamine is still
the primary substance," Cheung said.

Odourless, cheap and easy to consume, ketamine, which started out as a
poor man's cocaine, edged out heroin in Hong Kong around 2000 and then
overtook marijuana.

Hardcore addicts spend just HK$100(about $15 Cdn)daily for three hits
of the drug.

Sources familiar with the trade say ketamine is widely manufactured in
liquid form in China, and then brought into Hong Kong, where it can be
easily converted into the powder form that is snorted by addicts.

Many young people in Hong Kong travel across the border to China to
enjoy the party scene and a cheap and plentiful supply of ketamine.
While not addictive, users become psychologically dependent, expert
say.

In 2008, Hong Kong had an estimated 8,309 psychotropic drug users, of
whom 5,042 used ketamine, according to one study. Methylamphetamine,
or ice, is in second place with 1,360 users.

Together with other drugs such as ice and ecstasy, ketamine was used
in regional rave party circuits in the yearly years of the decade,
turning up in places such as Taiwan, Bangkok, Singapore and Malaysia.

"It has (also) spread beyond Asia to places like Canada, particularly
its ethnic Chinese community.

"Drug trend is like fashion, it is passed along by friends," said
Cheung.

Although raids by anti-drug agencies in Hong Kong in recent years have
driven ketamine away from nightspots, its abundant supply and ease of
use has led to ever younger people becoming addicted and the drug
being consumed just about anywhere.

"Its use is rising and we have addicts as young as nine. Before,
people used it in nightspots, now drugs are a part of their lives,
they use it everyday, in their homes, in their office (toilets),
everywhere," said Sparkle Yu, a social worker with Caritas, a Catholic
help group in Hong Kong.

"It is very easy to buy. They (pushers) can deliver them to the foot
of your office building in 15 minutes."

Yet, as with all drugs, the consequences are dire.

"The complications of psychotropic drugs are many. For ice and
ecstasy, they are linked to cardiac, lung and breathing difficulties,
brain damage," said Peggy Chu, senior medical officer and urologist at
Tuen Mun Hospital in Hong Kong.

"For ketamine, there is long-term neurological and uterine
complications, like having to go to the toilet every 15 minutes,
bladder, kidney and liver problems.

"Colangitis, or inflammation of the bile duct, causes stomach pain and
it could damage the liver in the long term."