{"id":309124,"date":"2026-01-13T15:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T15:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/would-upgrading-ketamine-to-class-a-stop-the-drugs-surge-itv-news\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T15:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T15:00:20","slug":"would-upgrading-ketamine-to-class-a-stop-the-drugs-surge-itv-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/would-upgrading-ketamine-to-class-a-stop-the-drugs-surge-itv-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Would upgrading ketamine to Class A stop the drug&#8217;s surge? | ITV News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.ytimg.com\/vi\/u3_YWh5tWic\/hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Would upgrading ketamine to Class A stop the drug's surge? | ITV News\"><br \/> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/u3_YWh5tWic\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p>Would upgrading ketamine to class A stop the drug&#8217;s surge? <\/p>\n<p>The cheap, widely available drug can shred and shrink users bladders&#8217; &#8211; leaving them constantly rushing to the toilet.<\/p>\n<p>It can even kill, with Friends actor Matthew Perry and drag star The Vivienne both dying after taking the drug in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>The government is deliberating on whether to reclassify the drug from class B to class A, bringing harsher punishments for supply and possession.<\/p>\n<p>Steve Rolles from Transform Drug Policy Foundation and Digital Reporter George Hancorn join Lucy Watson to discuss whether reclassification would put people off.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Subscribe to ITV News on YouTube: http:\/\/bit.ly\/2lOHmNj<br \/>\n\u2022 Get breaking news and more stories at http:\/\/www.itv.com\/news<\/p>\n<p>Follow ITV News on TikTok https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@itvnews?lang=en<br \/>\nFollow ITV News on Instagram: https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/itvnews\/<br \/>\nFollow ITV News on Facebook: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/itvnews\/<br \/>\nFollow ITV News on X: https:\/\/twitter.com\/itvnews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Would upgrading ketamine to class A stop the drug&#8217;s surge? The cheap, widely available drug can shred and shrink users bladders&#8217; &#8211; leaving them constantly rushing to the toilet. It can even kill, with Friends actor Matthew Perry and drag star The Vivienne both dying after taking the drug in recent years. The government is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":309125,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[128812],"tags":[142375,137848,129572],"actors":[],"class_list":["post-309124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-itv-news","tag-ketamine","tag-upgrading","tag-would"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Would upgrading ketamine to Class A stop the drug&#039;s surge? | ITV News | News ISC Videos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Watch Would upgrading ketamine to Class A stop the drug&#039;s surge? | ITV News for free, here on News ISC. Discover more great videos on our website and be part of the community.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/would-upgrading-ketamine-to-class-a-stop-the-drugs-surge-itv-news\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Would upgrading ketamine to Class A stop the drug&#039;s surge? | ITV News | News ISC Videos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Watch Would upgrading ketamine to Class A stop the drug&#039;s surge? | ITV News for free, here on News ISC. 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