Dad says popular drug is 'worst ever' after death of his son, aged 23

A 23-year-old man ended up unable to stop wetting himself after years of taking ketamine and died days after being released from hospital. Craig Hamer, 43, said his son Ethan began taking the class B drug when he was aged just 14 but his usage ramped up following a family bereavement in 2020.

His addiction got worse after the death of his mum in 2024 and he was left taking up to seven grams of the drug every day which left him constantly urinating and 'stinking of pee' due to damage to his bladder. Father-of-one Ethan died on April 28 this year shortly after being discharged from hospital where he had been treated for kidney failure.

An inquest this month confirmed that his death was ‘drug-related’ and that Ethan had not eaten or drunk anything for days. Craig said his son's addiction was so severe he had taken on debt from drug dealers and was selling the drugs himself to obtain it.

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The dad, from Halifax, West Yorkshire, said: “He started taking ketamine, he wasn’t dealing with his emotions. He was taking more, and the pain – I was basically watching my son, who was a very confident, popular lad who had loads of friends, loads of girlfriends, turn into this person within a few months that people wouldn’t want to go near.

“He stunk of pee – he couldn’t hold his urine in. He was peeing all over, he was constipated. We’ve got him on camera outside the house pulling his pants down trying to stop the pain. All he thought about was this drug.

“It just consumed him, he wanted to take more and more and more. He stopped eating. I did everything for him, I paid all his bills, I paid his rent, I did his shopping for him. He had food thrown all over his house.

“He got to a point where he couldn’t eat, he would eat Dolmio sauce raw off the spoon. It destroyed every part of him and I just couldn’t get any help. He basically just cut himself off from everybody."

Despite interventions by social services, dad Craig says he was unable to get Ethan the help he needed. On April 24 – five days before he died – Ethan called an ambulance and went to hospital, complaining of chronic pain in his stomach and saying he couldn’t stop urinating.

But just a day later, he discharged himself from hospital – ignoring doctor’s warnings that he should stay. Dad Craig contacted social services the next day, Friday, April 25, asking someone to check on his son – but the request was overlooked. By Monday, April 28, he was dead.

Now, Craig says he wants to see ketamine reclassified from a class B drug to the most serious category, class A, in the hope that tougher sentences will deter dealers from supplying the drug and make it unaffordable for kids to get started. An online fundraiser for Ethan’s funeral costs and to support his four-month-old daughter Alora-Jane has already received more than £2,500 in donations.

Craig said: “It needs to be classified class A so there’s tougher sentences straight away. It will become more expensive, because dealers will want more for the risk. On top of that, it stops kids from being able to afford it. I’d say it’s less than a tenner to be able to get some – I don’t know.

“I see all kids on it, if you know what you’re looking for, you see them on it. It’s all the young lads, and girls, from estates. All the young lads that are not as privileged as other kids.

“It’s rife, it’s kids selling to kids to make money, and even the kids that are selling it are getting addicted. The older dealers know they’re feeding it to kids.”

Craig called on parents who suspect their children to be taking ketamine to take a zero-tolerance approach. He said: “Deal with it straight away. Don’t listen to anything they say. He kept saying to me ‘I’m fine dad, I’m fine, don’t worry, I’m fine’.

“He wasn’t fine. This drug is bad. It’s the worst drug I’ve ever come across, this is the worst of them all. If there are any kids out there on it – parents need to take it really seriously. Get them into rehab, push to just do anything you can to help them, otherwise you’re going to lose them.”