My beautiful 20 year-old daughter died after making the wrong choice on a night out with friends – now I’m warning others against the terrible mistake

A devastated mother has begged ministers to reclassify the party drug ketamine as class A, following the harrowing death of her 20 year-old daughter who suffered a two-year addiction to the drug.

Sophie Russell, from Lincolnshire, first took ketamine — which killed TV star Matthew Perry — in 2021, when she was offered it during a night out with friends.

But soon she’d developed a rampant addiction and was taking the drug daily, which caused debilitating physical consequences including agonising abdominal pains and incontinence. 

The drug can damage the lining of the bladder, causing it to become so scarred that it shrinks. 

Ms Russell, who worked as an assistant in a primary school, was admitted to an inpatient addiction treatment service for a week — but it failed to kick the habit long-term.

Her mother, Tracy Marelli, said community addiction specialists let her daughter down after she was discharged from hospital.

‘I feel she was let down by the whole system…I begged the drug support worker to admit her to rehab before she died,’ she said.

In late September Ms Russell travelled to her father’s house to take a bath in a bid to help her pain.

Ms Russell is said to have started using the party drug as a way of coping with grief she suffered after the death of her grandmother (pictured left).

 She went to bed that night and never woke up.

The family are still awaiting the toxicology results to determine the cause of Sophie’s death. 

Ms Marelli, 48, said of the moment she learned her daughter had died: ‘I screamed and fell to the floor. This drug destroyed her.’

She believes Ms Russell first began using ketamine frequently as a method of numbing grief she felt following the death of her grandmother. 

‘Around mid-November time in 2021 she started going out with her friends and began taking ketamine while out partying as a lot of young people do,’ she said.

‘I wasn’t aware that she was taking drugs at all.

‘The first time I knew something was wrong, I kept ringing her up and she was slurring. She couldn’t get some of her words out. This was happening quite often.

‘I think I found out about her drug use when I found powder in her room. I asked her why she did it and she said it takes her away from this world and it’s a happier, better place.

Ms Russell was admitted to a rehabilitation centre for a week, but the treatment failed to combat the addiction.

The drug took its physical toll on Ms Russell: she developed agonising pain and became incontinent.

Now, Ms Russell’s mother is calling for a change in the law that would reclassify ketamine as a class A drug.

‘I don’t understand because she was so loved and looked after and had so much to look forward to in life. I just didn’t get it.

‘Once I found out about what was happening, I told her to stop taking it. We had that conversation but she clearly couldn’t.

‘She said she found herself going out with her friends, having a good time partying, then found herself sat in her room, doing it on her own.

‘She went from having a laugh to taking [it every day] on her own.’

Of the physical health implications Ms Russell said: ‘Sophie would tell me about pain in her tummy, she would have hot water bottles constantly. I would take her to A&E then all of a sudden it would disappear.

‘She was a size 14 when she was 18, and ended up being a size six when she passed away. She had lost so much weight.

‘The doctors didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with this. She needed to go to the toilet all the time. She was in pull-ups for well over a year, she was fully incontinent.’

Ms Marelli said ketamine was ‘everywhere’ in the area where the family lived. 

Ms Marelli, 48, said of the moment she learned her daughter had died: ‘I screamed and fell to the floor. This drug destroyed her.’

 ‘I remember her saying there were apps to get it. She could order it on her phone and go pick it up from somewhere.

‘She told me one night that she knew she was going to die from this but didn’t want to.’

A week before she died, Ms Russell attended her local A&E for help with severe back pain. But instead of picking up on signs of her addiction, doctors sent her home with antibiotics to treat a kidney infection.

‘She needed hospitalising,’ said Ms Marelli. ‘I told them she was a ketamine addict but they didn’t ask any questions about it or link anything to that.’

Now, Ms Mirelli is calling on the Government to reclassify the drug as a class A substance — it is currently class B.

‘I get the young want to experiment — but not with this drug,’ she said. ‘It should be a class A. I would say to other people just don’t do it, it’s not worth the risk.’

In October last year the world was shocked when Friends star Perry, 54, was found dead in his hot tub at his home in Los Angeles.

It emerged the Chandler Bing actor died from the acute effects of ketamine, having been using it to treat depression.

In the UK, ketamine – sometimes called ket or ‘special K’ – is seen by young people as a cheaper alternative to cocaine.