From the other side of the party, a friend of my daughter’s waves at me. I’m ecstatic to see her. I try to wave back but I can’t move my arm. I stare at it incredulously. ‘Send the message,’ my brain tells me. ‘Pick up your hand and use the levers in your elbow to move it up in the air. Turn your wrist to the right. Spread your fingers. Move your hand from left to right.’
I concentrate hard and, finally, I can wave back – jerkily and a little mechanically but recognisably a wave.
The friend has, of course, long since moved on. The euphoria that had buzzed through my entire body only moments before ebbs and turns into something else entirely. Fear.
This wasn’t how I had expected my experiment with the illegal rave drug to go. Yes, this is me, a 55-year-old mother of three, confessing that at a party at our house hosted by my 19-year-old daughter last month, I took the illegal class B drug ketamine, known on the streets and in clubs as ‘special K’ or ‘vitamin K’.
Why on earth did I do it? I’m not an ageing raver, nor a criminal. I’m much more comfortable watching University Challenge on the sofa with my husband, or gossiping with my similarly menopausal friends about the benefits of Pilates. The answer lies in my long mission to be a good mother. I am trying ketamine for the sake of my kids.
The number of 16- to 24-year-olds taking it has quadrupled in a decade. Given its obvious popularity, I wanted to know what I was dealing with when it came to warning my children, aged 19, 17 and 16, about it.
My policy around drugs has always been to come at it from a point of knowledge. You can call it naive – I think of it as the opposite. I want them to have all the information they need, not from TikTok, not just from ‘boring’ catastrophising in school anti-drug lectures and not solely from their peers, but directly from me.
Bu hikaye WOMAN - UK dergisinin August 12, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye WOMAN - UK dergisinin August 12, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
NOT ANOTHER MEGA WEDDING!
Something is happening to me. When I see babies I no longer melt, coo or ask to hold them.
A little LIFE
Angela hadnt seen her friend for years surely they would have nothing in common now?
Adult-only ESCAPES
Searching for a relaxing break away from the stresses of family life? Look no further…
John and Lisa's EASY DINNERS
Enjoy speedy family meals from TV’s favourite cooking couple
Against ALL ODDS
Danielle Crooks brave boys were each born with a broken heart
Would you give your kidney to a stranger FOR £35K?
Aresearcher has suggested that a financial incentive could be the answer to the UK’s live organ donor shortage. We ask...
IT'S NOT JUST HARRY WHO IS FIGHTING THE KING OVER SECURITY
Another feud between heir and spare is bubbling away, with reports that the monarch has axed Prince Andrew’s private bodyguards.
'My tumours have grown'
Linda Nolan has given a heartbreaking cancer update, revealing that her tumours have ‘grown’ and her treatment has ‘stopped working’.
'I'm getting older and bigger, EVERYTHING CHANGES
Kelly Brook on why being fit and healthy is more important than dropping dress sizes
Even his dad WON'T TAKE HIS CALLS'
As the duke turns 40, his family seem to be more distant than ever