‘This drug is a killer’ 

A UK mom is mourning the death of her 26-year-old son, who was so addicted to ketamine that his bladder shrank to the size of a marble.

“This drug is a killer,” 47-year-old Clare Rogers, mother of the late Rian Rogers, told the Times Of London. “It is taking bladders from young children.”

Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic used to treat pain and depression but has become increasingly popular on the party scene due to its powerful hallucinogenic effects.

Rogers, once a rising computer engineering star, was reportedly found dead in the shower this past April with a fatal dose of the club drug in his body after a yearslong battle with bladder pain. At the time of his death, the Brit’s bladder capacity was 150ml — less than a third of a healthy adult’s.

“His bladder had shrunk to the size of a marble,” the deceased’s distraught mom said. “It was really ulcerated.”

The Warwickshire native had specifically suffered from “ketamine bladder.” This side effect occurs when abuse of the psychotropic substance, also referred to as “special K,” causes the urine pouch to shrink and the sufferer to be plagued by extreme pain and incontinence.

Unfortunately, this agonizing condition is on the rise, with experts estimating that between 26% and 30% of ketamine users experience at least one urological side effect.

Families have reported users in their teens and 20s wearing pee pads to bed, wetting the bed and even filling water bottles with bloody urine throughout the night.

Doctors suspected that Rogers had fallen prey to a vicious cycle in which ketamine addicts take more of it to alleviate pain caused by bladder damage and end up exacerbating their condition.

When he died, Rogers had reportedly been on the waiting list for a bladder transplant. Meanwhile, a consultant urologist had referred him for pain treatment in November 2021, but he didn’t land an appointment until June 2023, two months after his death (a notification of the appointment arrived while Rogers’ family was arranging his funeral).

This marked a tragic end for the computer whiz, who, as a teen, landed an electrical technician’s apprenticeship that involved developing prototype vehicles for Jaguar and Land Rover.

He notably devised ways for the company to increase efficiency with software, garnering the firm’s Rising Star awards for innovation in 2017 and 2019.

Despite his success, Rogers realized he preferred coding and became a full-time software developer with Experian.

It was around that time that he started heavily using ketamine. Though Rogers had first tried Special K during music festivals, he became addicted while living alone in an apartment during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

Hoping to curb his destructive path, the family reportedly pooled their resources to send him to rehab, only for Rogers to relapse three weeks after getting out.

“Rian was sporty and bright, with so many friends. He had everything to live for, but ketamine took all that away,” his mother, professional midwife Clare, previously told the Sun. “He hardly drank and didn’t do any other drugs, but ketamine became his tool to help him deal with his grief, numbing his pain.”

The bereaved parent is now using her son’s death as a cautionary tale against the perils of the anesthetic, which has wreaked havoc among youths across the UK. A recent investigation by the Times Of London found that 41 students have died with the drug in their bodies.

Ketamine is particularly insidious due to its relative affordability — just $20-$25 per dose — leading youngsters to believe that it’s not as harmful as other narcotics. It is also a Class B substance in the UK, meaning dealers face lesser penalties than if busted selling ecstasy, cocaine or other Class A drugs, all of which carry a maximum life sentence.

However, in light of this recent incident, lawmakers are mulling upping ketamine’s designation. “If you have evidence that there are systemic harms caused by ketamine on a widespread scale, which may mean reconsideration of the classification from class B to class A is merited, then please do share this with the Home Office and I will make sure that it is considered very carefully,” the UK’s policing minister, Chris Philp, wrote in a letter to Rogers’ parliamentary representative.

“Why is ketamine not Class A when it is doing so much harm to our kids?” Clare asked.

And the problem hasn’t stayed across the pond. In the US, ketamine is increasingly replacing opioid painkillers as the new “it” drug for relieving hard-to-treat pain, sparking fears of yet another pharmaceutically-fomented drug crisis.

Since 2017, prescriptions have soared 500% despite limited research supporting Special K’s efficacy as a pain reliever.

Like a pharmacological Groundhog Day, doctors could potentially repeat the same mistake that caused the opioid scourge: overprescribing a dubious drug that carries significant safety and abuse risks.

“There’s a paucity of options for pain and so there’s a tendency to just grab the next thing that can make a difference,” said Dr. Padma Gulur, a Duke University pain specialist who is studying ketamine’s use. “A medical journal will publish a few papers saying, ‘Oh, look, this is doing good things,’ and then there’s rampant off-label use, without necessarily the science behind it.”

Last week, it was officially ruled that Matthew Perry’s death was due to ketamine.

The “Friends” actor had been receiving infusions to treat depression and drug addiction, though the medical examiner noted that the drug in his system was likely not from his final infusion.