If ketamine was for personal use you'd need colostomy bags, says judge (2025)

A judge has called for the reclassification of ketamine after hearing how a Scots couple travelled 300 miles from their homes to smuggle a £1,800 haul of the party drug into a top music festival.

Erin Gallacher, 23, and her ex lover Keir Lyons, 24, from Dundee, narrowly avoided jail after they were caught with 46 wraps of the Class B narcotic, hidden inside two Kinder egg tubes and concealed in her person.

Judge Patrick Thompson told Chester Crown Court the legal profession has seen record levels of ketamine abuse in the last two years saying the consequences of its use are ‘most people’s worst nightmare’.

The court heard Gallacher had claimed they had not planned to smuggle the drugs into Creamfields festival, in Runcorn, Cheshire, while Lyons insisted the items were for their own use.

But Judge Thompson retorted: ‘What planet do people think judges are on? If they had taken 46 wraps over the weekend they would probably both be using colostomy bags now.

‘I have heard every excuse in the book. I know exactly what was going on.

‘Obviously someone has packed in the Kinder egg and that is planning to smuggle them into the festival. What was everyone else doing when she was inserting the Kinder egg? It is just not believable.

‘I have been dealing with Creamfields cases for the 15 years I have been sitting, rather too often for my liking.

‘No-one seems to get the message. The drug of the moment seems to be ketamine. I do not know why people do not realise the damage done to the bladder and bowels.

'It is most people’s worst nightmare to have a colostomy bag. More and more people have them because that is what ketamine does to your insides.

‘It is a category B drug but most judges feel it should be category A. I do not know why it is category B because it is so prominent now and the damage it is causing to people.

‘But people choose to take the drug. It puts a strain on the NHS for various bladder and bowel operations that they have to do.

'During a murder case at court recently, the defendant constantly had to be allowed breaks for the toilet.

‘He was a ketamine user and his bladder was shot to bits. That is what it gets to.’

Gallacher and Lyons both admitted possession on ketamine with intent to supply.

She wept in the dock as Judge Thompson sentenced her to four months in jail, suspended for 18 months, along with 200 hours of unpaid work.

Lyons was sentenced to a year in prison, suspended for 12 months, along with 300 hours of unpaid work.

At an earlier hearing, the court heard the couple were caught after travelling to festival on August 25, 2023 by coach,

Gallacher was stopped by security, searched and found to have concealed drugs with one of the Kinder egg cartons containing 30 wraps, consisting of 19.7g of ketamine, valued at £1,200 and the other 11.1g of ketamine, valued at £640.

She claimed to have been paid to take the drugs into the event having made arrangements on the coach before bursting into tears with Lyons saying he’d take responsibility for the drugs.

Will Griffin, prosecuting, said Lyons’ phone was analysed by police and added: ‘There seems to be evidence that he is involved in drug supply in Scotland and there was also some planning prior to the Creamfields weekend.’

She gave no comment in police interview while he failed to attend on two separate occasions.

Barrister Paul Wood representing Gallacher said it had been an ‘act of immaturity’ and his client had ‘learnt her lesson’.

Defence counsel Oliver Saddington for Lyons said his client’s parents had both died due to a drug use and added: ‘It is astonishing to me as it is to the court, that he now appears to be sentenced for drugs offences bearing in mind what happened to his parents. It’s a painful irony.’

The Home Office requested a review of ketamine classification earlier this year and is seeking expert advice on reclassifying it to become Class A substance.