Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson, is asking experts if ketamine should be made a Class A drug (Image: Liverpool Echo)
The party drug Ketamine could be made a Class A substance after a record number of people took it last year.
Dealers and producers could face life behind bars, under the proposed changes.
The Home Office said almost 300,000 people admitted taking the drug last year.
But officials believe Ketamine is “one of the most detected drugs in incidents of spiking”.
Some pink cocaine is believed to have ketamine mixed into it (Image: Getty)
And greedy drug dealers are creating a “dangerous synthetic drug cocktail” by mixing it with cocaine to create “pink cocaine”.
Policing Minister, Dame Diana Johnson, said: “Ketamine is an extremely dangerous substance and the recent rise in its use is deeply concerning.
“Through our Plan for Change and mission to make the nation’s streets safer, we will work across health, policing and wider public services to drive down drug use and stop those who profit from its supply.
“It is vital we are responding to all the latest evidence and advice to ensure people’s safety and we will carefully consider the ACMD’s recommendations before making any decision.”
Prime Minister Sir has insisted spiking will be made a specific criminal offence despite a backlash over the plans.
The PM said the move will encourage more victims to come report and report their drinks being laced with drugs.
Police forces across the country are deploying plain-clothes officers to detect and snare predators trying to spike women.
And bar staff will be trained to detect signs people are being targeted.
Sir Keir pledged that thousands of workers in the night-time economy will be trained on how to prevent spiking incidents, support victims and help collect evidence.
Detailing the training scheme, he went on: “We’re beginning the piloting of training for staff in venues.”
He said the scheme would be “partly to spot what’s happening, but also to know what to do in the event that there is an incident in a venue”.
“That will start in December with a pilot then it will be rolled out from March of next year,” Sir Keir added.
He also said that the “final” point of discussion for the morning was “police indexing – (the) way that we count it across different police forces”.
Sir Keir added: “At the moment it’s quite hard to get your arms around the pure numbers.”