Photo posted online showing ketamine use in a Jiangxi nightclub. Photo: Weibo

New | 17-year-old girl arrested in Jiangxi after posting photos of herself snorting ketamine online

Published: 4:45pm, 6 Oct 2014

A 17-year-old girl from China’s Jiangxi province has been detained by police after posting online photos of herself and a group of friends snorting the illegal drug ketamine.

After a popular nightclub in Xinyu, a prefecture-level city of around 1.3 million people, had its business licence suspended for six months as part of a crackdown on drugs and prostitution in the city, a series of photos of young women snorting ketamine and dancing in a private room went viral online.

According to a post on the official microblog of the Xinyu City Public Security Bureau, a 17-year-old surnamed Wang was detained on October 4 after the photos were brought to the authorities’ attention. She admitted posing for the photos in April of this year.

Chinese authorities have taken a hard approach to drug use in recent months. In September, Jacky Chan’s son Jaycee and Taiwanese actor Ko Chen-tung were arrested on suspicion of “accommodating drug users” after being caught smoking cannabis in Beijing.

Ketamine (K fen) is a popular club drug on the mainland, where it is consumed in much the same way as cocaine is in the West, despite the two drugs’ very different effects on users. Originally developed as an anaesthetic, ketamine can cause hallucinations and mild-euphoria when taken at low does, or a dissociative state similar to an out-of-body experience – referred to as a “K-hole” – when consumed in large amounts.

In 2008, the UN wrote that ketamine was “the most abused drug in Hong Kong [and] gaining popularity across southern China,” though it warned that due to its legitimate applications, “the true extent of its use is unclear and probably underestimated.”

“[In China] the general public is unaware of the dangers of K,” a senior member of the Dongguan Public Security Bureau told the online magazine Motherboard last year. “Many believe this drug isn’t addictive, and have the misunderstanding that it’s not harmful to your health … it is capable of not only harming our social moral fabric but even destroying society altogether.”

Ketamine was the “most abused” psychotropic substance among reported drug users in Hong Kong in 2013, according to the Central Registry of Drug Abuse.

In May, Hong Kong customs seized more than 20 kilograms of the drug being smuggled from the mainland. Police estimated the haul, intended for local consumption, had a street value of around HK$2.5 million.

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