It took just three years for party drug ketamine to totally derail Jack Curran’s life, leaving him bloated, reliant on nappies and facing a stark choice: ‘stop using, or die in six months’.
Mr Curran, from Essex, was just 16 when he first tried the Class B substance, taking it with friends who had ‘started experimenting with drugs’.
But just months later, his casual dabbling had morphed into a destructive addiction that saw him snorting ‘loads of it all day long’.
By the age of 21, he faced the prospect of having his bladder surgically removed and replaced with a catheter bag after the drugs wrecked the organ’s delicate inner lining.
He struggled with incontinence, acute pain, and mental health issues, and spent months wrestling with suicidal thoughts.
But it wasn’t enough to make him stop, and—while wearing adult nappies because he had lost the ability to control his bladder—he continued to drag himself to meet dealers, desperate to pick up more of the drugs which were slowly killing him.
Now 29-years-old and in recovery from his addiction, he wants to warn others never to touch the ‘rite of passage’ party drug.
Recreational use of ketamine has surged among young people in recent years, putting them at serious risk of heart attack, organ failure and bladder problems.
Jack Curran first tried the drug at just 16-year-old but soon became hooked after breaking his leg
Special K, Ket, or Kit Kat (pictured), as it is also known, was popular as a party drug in the late 1990s, when it was commonly taken at all-night raves. But numbers are on the rise in young people in particular, with more people seeking treatment
‘The first time I had the cramps, I was in agony, sweating and screaming and I swore never to do ketamine again.
Mr Curran said that he became truly ‘hooked’ on the class B drug after he started using it as a painkiller after breaking his leg in a boating accident, aged 19.
However, distraction from one pain triggered another.
At his worst, Mr Curran says he would would be doubled over in pain due to agonising ‘k cramps’.
‘The first symptom I had was “ket cramps” which was like a stabbing pain in my belly’, the now recovered addict recalled.
‘But after the pain stopped, I was using ketamine again within a few hours’, he said.
He was overloading his body with ketamine to the point that his liver struggled to flush out the toxins, causing his fingers, ankles and face to swell until he looked like a ‘marshmallow’.
Mr Curran would use ketamine all day, despite being in excruciating pain and needing to wear nappies because of his incontinence caused by heavy substance abuse
The substance — now used in private clinics for its alleged anti-depressant effect — can wreak havoc on the body, causing bladder issues and kidney failure with routine use
At this point, the 21-year-old was given just six months to live.
But despite the excruciating pain and his freakish appearance he just ‘couldn’t stop using’.
Mr Curran was soon forced to face the brutal reality of his addiction, not only was he regularly soiling himself, he also discovered he had destroyed the inner lining of his bladder, prompting medics to suggest it was removed.
He said: ‘I was urinating my bed as my nappies were leaking.
‘I had jaundice because my liver was so damaged. I was like a skeleton holding water weight,’ he added.
‘I was getting pain when I went to the toilet like I had some sort of UTI, like peeing glass. Then I started urinating blood, jelly’.
When Mr Curran went to the hospital, medics told him he would need to have his bladder removed because it had become so inflamed, causing him to urinate out the lining of the organ.
This condition typically involves a blockage in the urinary tract, causing urine to back up and damage the kidneys.
Jack became incontinent and could not control his bladder leaving him needing to go to the toilet every five minutes
But, scared of undergoing any procedures to rectify the damage he had inflicted on his body, Mr Curran turned down the surgery, and was left fighting his addiction on his own.
‘The pain was so demoralising, where you can’t do anything even if you want to. I was fighting for my life but I couldn’t stop using,’ he said.
‘I’ve been to every dark place possible. I looked in the mirror and was disgusted with what I saw. I was contemplating suicide because I felt there was no hope.’
Despite being two years sober after a number of relapses, Mr Curran is still living with the consequences of his addiction, having to use the toilet more frequently than other people his age.
Now, the recovered addict wants to raise better awareness around the serious side-effects of recreational drug use, and deter young people from experimenting with the drug—something he says he didn’t have as a teenager.
‘When I was 16 there was no social media to warn me about what could potentially happen but the consequences will last forever and it does leave you with life-long symptoms’, he said.
‘Life is different to what it’s ever been for me now’ the nearly-qualified therapist added.
‘But you don’t have to go down the road I went to if you’re struggling. Please get out of the addiction when you can.
Jack said that his addiction left him looking like a skeleton as his liver could not flush out the toxins, causing his face, hands and ankles to swell
‘The end of a drug addiction battle is either death or absolute demoralisation’, he said, urging young people to educate themselves about the life-threatening side-effects of recreational drug use.
Ketamine is used clinically as a general anaesthetic, with low doses prescribed for chronic pain, treatment resistant depression and suicidal tendencies.
But, now experts are warning that the illicit drug is increasingly being used at doses of 250mg or more recreationally, which can rapidly diminish sensations and even inhibit memory.
A recent report published in the British Medical Journal revealed that between 2023 and 2024, 3,609 people started treatment for ketamine addiction in England, a figure eight times higher than the 426 reported just a decade before.
Use of the drug among 16 to 24-year-olds more than doubled from 1.7 per cent to an alarming 3.8 per cent between 2010 and 2023.
Tolerance to the drug is known to build quickly, meaning users need more and more of the substance to feel the same high, increasing the risk of overdosing or experiencing serious adverse effects, such as bladder problems.
More than a quarter of regular ketamine users in the UK report at least one bladder-related problem, including a painful burning sensation when passing urine, needing to urinate more often and incontinence.
The only way to treat these serious problems is abstinence—where a user actively chooses to stop taking the drug.
Jack is now two years sober and is campaigning for better awareness around the serious side-effects of recreational drug use
However, if a user continues to abuse drugs whilst experiencing these problems, they will likely need to have a bladder transplant or regular bladder installation treatments—where drugs are used to try and stretch the bladder back to its normal size.
The warning comes as the Home Office is considering reclassifying the drug, so that it carries the highest penalty for possession, supply or production.
Currently, despite its classification as a class B drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act, it is estimated to be available illicitly for as little as £20 a gram.
Experts say the low cost is driving the surge in recreationally use amongst young people.
