Welcome to the documentary on the BBC World Service.
The synthetic drug ketamine first grabbed my attention with the death of American actor Matthew Perry.
And when I tuned into how many other ketamine users were dying or being hospitalised,
I wanted to discover where the drug was coming from and why it was so easy to obtain.
We're on the trail of the UK's fastest-growing drug.
I put that in.
That will come up with specifically ketamine.
So this emoji is code between people who know, and it stands for, you want ketamine?
Yeah.
Ketamine claimed the life of the American actor Matthew Perry,
raising the profile of the drug and the damage that it can cause.
But for the dealers, they've never had it so good.
Criminal gangs can make more profit at this moment from doing business with ketamine than with cocaine.
We're following the supply routes across Europe.
It has a street value of approximately 55 million euros.
Places where it's not even classified as a narcotic.
But it's like ketamine is also a medicine.
So where's it made?
And why does no one seem able to stop it?
It's too easy to say, yeah, but we produce it legally, and for the rest it's not our problem,