Methoxetamine: An early report on the motivations for use, effect profile and prevalence of use in a UK clubbing sample (2016)

Introduction and Aims: To assess the prevalence of use and subjective effect profile of methoxetamine among a group of polydrug users.
Design and Methods: Cross-sectional, anonymous, online survey of UK-based polydrug users was conducted. Prevalence of lifetime, last year and last month use, sourcing of the drugs, motivations for use, and subjective effect and risk profile compared with that of ketamine were measured.
Results: There were 7700 UK-based polydrug users, of whom 326 reported recent use of methoxetamine. Of the whole sample, 4.2% reported last 12 month use of methoxetamine compared with 24.5% for ketamine. The most common route of use was intranasal and the predominate effect described as psychedelic. Of the 15.5% of last year users of ketamine reporting last year use of methoxetamine, only 18.7% reported that they thought methoxetamine was less damaging to their kidneys or bladder than ketamine. Its broad effect profile, based on participants' first experience of use, was very similar to that of ketamine. Almost one-third of users reported that they did not intend to try the drug again.
Discussion and Conclusions: Methoxetamine appears to have a broadly similar effect profile to that of ketamine. Only a minority of participants were motivated to use it because they believed it was less damaging to their kidneys or bladder than ketamine. The impact of the recent temporary banning order on availability and use of both methoxetamine and ketamine should be monitored carefully.