All Out with Jon Dean The Truth About KETAMINE: The Not-So "Safe One" (Pt. 3)
Aug 19, 2025
Dr. Emmert Roberts, senior clinical lecturer in addiction psychiatry at King’s College London, brings concise evidence-based perspective on ketamine. He unpacks rising recreational use, debunks the "safe" myth, and outlines bladder and physical harms. He also covers dosing, routes and dissociative effects, plus acute overdose risks and harms from cutting agents.
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Ketamine Use Has Risen Rapidly Due To Availability And Perception
- Ketamine has long medical and recreational history but recent years saw sharp rises in availability and problematic use in the UK.
- Emmert Roberts links cheaper supply, wider availability, and publicity around antidepressant use to more users and harms since ~2019.
Ketamine Can Cause Severe Bladder Damage And Dependence
- Ketamine is not harmless: it can cause dependence, withdrawal, tolerance, severe bladder damage, and K-cramps.
- Emmert Roberts notes many users enter services because of bladder pain, blood in urine, UTIs, and need for urological surgery.
Urology Services Are Seeing More Ketamine-Related Surgeries
- Clinical demand from ketamine harms increasingly presents via urology, with rising need for reconstructive surgery and kidney interventions.
- Emmert Roberts links growing clinic and surgical cases to the recent surge in heavy ketamine use.