There is a video on Andrea’s phone of her daughter Lauren. In it, Lauren is being dangled by her ankles at the top of some stairs. The person holding her lets go, and she drops to the floor below. But Lauren is so zombified on ketamine, she doesn’t even flinch. Lauren is 13.

Janet’s daughter Maisie began having inexplicable rages. She’d smash things up for the smallest reason. Then she went missing for days. By the time the police found her, she was starving and so ill from ketamine withdrawal she had to be hospitalised. Maisie is 14.

These two young girls are just two examples of teenagers who are getting hooked on the so-called “party drug”. Kids are drawn to the class B substance – an animal tranquillizer, which is now one of the most common used by 16- to 24-year-olds in England – because it is readily available and cheap. A “bump” of ketamine, enough to get high, costs just a couple of pounds – less than alcohol.

But experts also point to more sinister reasons behind the ketamine epidemic that is striking the country: county lines gangs. These organised crime gangs bring drugs into a town or city from other areas. They recruit teenagers to deal the drugs for them – sometimes by and to kids as young as 12 – and the ones who make the deliveries get their fix for free.

Lauren, Andrea, Maisie and Janet all live in a deprived town in Lancashire. Yet that town, Burnley, is far from isolated in its experience of the devastation ketamine wreaks.

Local vicar Father Alex Frost, who regularly speaks to parents who don’t know how to break the hold drug gangs have on their 12- and 13-year-olds, hears reports of similar stories from ministries in poorer areas around the country. He says: “Drug dealing is normal around here. I don’t report it because what’s the point? Children are being exploited by other children and those up the chain that nobody sees, county lines. Parents tell me nothing gets done. They are being told by the authorities that it is their responsibility.”

His colleague Philip North, the Bishop of Blackburn, says drug services have been “almost entirely wiped out” since the 2008 recession. That is adding to a mental health crisis among youngsters he says, adding: “It may start as a craze, but taking ketamine gives them a really powerful dissociative state they call a ‘K-hole’, an escape from reality. That children as young as 12 or 13 feel the need to do that raises really important questions.”

Andrea thinks the pandemic and a move from primary to secondary school during lockdown triggered Lauren’s decline. She says: “About 12 months ago, her mood changed, her attitude towards us changed, her ability to engage with us went downhill. I was getting messages off people on Facebook telling me she was taking drugs. I didn’t want to believe it.”

Then she was sent that awful video. “She was just dead behind the eyes,” Andrea says. “It could have ended her life and there was no feeling.”

Lauren has lost a friend – who drowned in the canal – due to ketamine, while another is now in a wheelchair and a third needs a stoma bag. Yet nothing will put her off. She breaks windows, steals, and disappears for days. Andrea even found a notebook in Lauren’s room outlining how she would run a drugs empire of her own, detailing costs, outgoings and expenses. “What 13-year-old writes a business plan about becoming the next drugs kingpin?” asks the mum, who is so desperate that she and her husband have begged for Lauren to be taken into care for her own protection. “At that age I was writing poems about how much I loved my dog.”

Ray Jones, service manager at drugs charity With You in Lancashire, worries that the risks associated with ketamine are not well understood. He says: “In just a very short period of time, ketamine can cause permanent damage to the body, including changes in mental health, memory loss, and damage to the nose, liver and kidneys. Ketamine-induced cystitis, or ‘ketamine bladder’, has been identified, with symptoms including incontinence and painful urination. In some cases, bladder removal surgery is the only option.”

Maisie is one of the lucky ones. When she was hospitalised, she told her mum she wanted to get clean. She’d been using for nine months, but has now been off it for three. Janet says: “I am so relieved. Social services have helped Maisie so much, they have been amazing. I think police need to do more with regards to grooming and kids being able to get hold of it so easily. I have given them the names of the dealers, but nothing happened.”

Dr Sakthi Karunanithi, director of public health at Lancashire County Council, says: “Nationally we are aware of a growing trend of young people experimenting with ketamine. As a council, we are already working with our partners to provide support to families and young people experiencing issues with any type of illegal drugs or alcohol, as well as looking at education and treatment options.

“If someone passes out or falls asleep and you can’t wake them up after using ketamine, put them in the recovery position and get help fast by calling 999.”

A spokesman for Lancashire Police says: “We are working with communities to take drugs off our streets.”

Inside the nightmare

Ketamine – also known as Special K or Ket – is a powerful anaesthetic that can reduce sensations in the body, producing a “dream-like” state. With a street price of around £30 per gram – compared to heroin at around £65 – a bump, which is often snorted, costs less than a pint. Some 6% of 16- to 24-year-olds had tried it by 2020, official data shows – a threefold rise on 2005, when it became a Class B drug.

Drugs charity Frank warns it can be fatal, particularly if mixed with other drugs. It can increase the heart rate and blood pressure, cause confusion and disconnection from reality, and can lead to sickness, serious bladder problems, liver damage and short and long-term memory issues.

Dead in a canal

On a hot day last summer, Preston McNally fell into a canal. The water was only 30cm deep. But within three minutes, Preston, 16, could no longer be seen. His friends didn’t ring 999 until two hours later. A bypasser told police they had looked zombified.

“They were lifting their legs up and taking forever to place them down, it was like everything was in slow motion,” he said.

After Preston’s drowned body was pulled from the Leeds Liverpool Canal in Burnley, tests found ketamine in his system.

Assistant Coroner Sian Jones ruled that had the teeagaer not taken ketamine, he would have been able to stand up in the water.

• Case study names have been changed to protect their identities
• With You offers free and confidential support to young people struggling with drugs and alcohol. For help call 0808 164 0074 or webchat to an adviser via wearewithyou.org.uk