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Chinese authorities, responding to rising problematic ketamine use in China and Hong Kong, have tried to limit the availability of the drug's precursor compounds, such as hydroxylamine, a chemical more generally used in the production of nylon. Even so, the number of clandestine labs in China – the epicentre of global ketamine production and use – is rising. Analysts believe not all of the ketamine being pumped out of these places is ending up the nasal cavities of people in that region and that increased production of ketamine in clandestine laboratories in China has been a contributing factor to the end of the UK drought."It is highly likely that ketamine produced in Chinese labs is now reaching the UK market," Martin Raithelhuber, Illicit Synthetic Drug Expert at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), told me. Raithelhuber says the underground labs have proliferated across China in the last six years. Chinese authorities closed more than 100 such labs in 2014. The export of ketamine from China to Europe, he points out, follows an already established route of other relatively novel psychoactive substances, such as synthetic cannabis and cathinones (chemical "cousins" of amphetamines) including mephedrone.It should come as no surprise that China, the world's biggest trading nation, is rapidly becoming the world's number one provider for the rising market in synthetic psychoactive drugs, of which ketamine is one of the most popular in Britain.READ ON MOTHERBOARD: The Great K-Hole of China
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