Featured Image Credit: SWNS
Topics: Mental Health, Drugs, UK News
Joshua Nair
Warning: This article contains discussion of drug addiction which some readers may find distressing
A 19-year-old was forced to go to rehab after his mother filmed him getting home while high on ketamine.
Daniel Davies has been battling an addiction with the Class B drug ever since he was 16.
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The Brit admitted that he was snorting five grams of ketamine per day, including days where he had work.
He would spend £40 per day on the habit, as the Warrington teenager even sold his PlayStation 5 console in exchange for four ounces (113 grams) of the drug, which is primarily used as horse tranquiliser.
Daniel made the sale after checking into Rehab the first time, which caused him to be kicked out. But when he was just 17, his mum filmed him coming back from a bender, as the wide-eyed teen came stumbling home after a night using the substance.
Julie Williams took her phone out when her teenage son got back, as he struggled to stand up without support in the clip.
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She asked: “What are you doing, what are you actually doing?”
Daniel mumbled the words back to her, and claimed to know the time when asked, before resting his arms on the kitchen counter.
Reflecting on his addiction, Daniel admitted: “When I was off the drugs, it made me feel like s**t, I hated it, but I couldn’t stop doing it.
“For everyone else, it was awful – I was just a liability, they always had their eyes on me 24/7.”
He admitted that he began sleeping at the homes of friends and families, though he would find a way to smuggle ketamine in.
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“My mum started sleeping on the landing outside my bedroom door. I was getting kicked out from house to house,” he said.
Admitting that he would sometimes hide it in his boxers to sniff in the bathroom, he said that 'it’s not the kind of drug you can get away with when you’re on'.
Having tried ketamine for the first time at 15, he only developed an addiction a year later following the suicide of his friend.
Dylan said he started using it every day despite his mum 'trying everything', after she was unaware of his addiction for a year.
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“I flew under the bus for a year. When she found out she was trying everything she could,” he explained.
The teen added: “She started becoming ill from what I was doing, thinking I was going to kill myself. I’d tell her I was going to stop, then I’d stop it for like two days and then I’d be back on it again, the cycle just kept going.”
He explained that he never got to the point of 'weeing blood', but that his 'wee felt like razor blades on the end of my penis'.
Hospital visits weren't helping, and his stomach cramps caused him to throw up.
The 19-year-old admitted that he'd do it in the portaloo on construction sites while doing his electrical apprenticeship, adding: “I just could not stop using no matter what.”
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After his unsuccessful first attempt at rehab, which saw him sell his PS5, he went back earlier this year, and is approaching the milestone of being 90 days clean.
Saying that he's feeling '10 times better', having put two stone on since being clean, he advised others to 'reach out for help'.
“There’s a lot more people than you think going through the same thing," he went on, saying: "When I was doing it I thought I was the only one, I thought I was on my own – but you’re not."
Lancashire is in a 'ketamine crisis' according to councillors, which resulted in the government granting £10.6 million to the country to deal with drug and alcohol-related deaths in the area.
ONS states that under three percent of 16 to 24-year-olds used ketamine between April 2023 and March 2024, while the Home Office have been mulling over re-classifying the drug as Class A rather than Class B.
If you want friendly, confidential advice about drugs, you can talk to FRANK. You can call 0300 123 6600, text 82111 or contact through their website 24/7, or livechat from 2pm-6pm any day of the week