'One act of stupidity has destroyed our family': Teenager died after taking horse tranquiliser at a festival, inquest is told just MINUTES before ketamine is upgraded to class B drug

Ellie Rowe passed out in her tent and died after she inhaled the drug

It was reclassified from a Class C drug to a Class B substance yesterday

Student, 18, was an Oxfam volunteer at the Boomtown Fair festival in Winchester, Hampshire, when the tragedy happened



Her heartbroken family paid tribute to the talented teenager, saying that 'one act of stupidity has destroyed a family'

Advisory Council on Misuse of Drugs said ketamine should be upgraded from Class C to B and Home Office has taken the recommendation



Ellie Rowe, 18, collapsed at the Boomtown Fair in Winchester after taking ketamine

The dangerous drug ketamine was upgraded today - just minutes after a coroner heard how a teenager died when she experimented with a small dose of the horse tranquiliser at a music festival.

Ellie Rowe passed out in her tent and died after she snorted the drug, which was yesterday reclassified from a Class C drug to a Class B substance by the Home Office.

The 18-year-old girl was working as an Oxfam volunteer at the Boomtown Fair festival in Winchester, Hampshire, when the tragedy happened on August 8 last year.

She and her best friend Stephanie Peirce had bought two grams of the drug for £40 at the reggae and dub step music festival and inhaled one line of 200mg of ketamine each after drinking several cans of lager.

A coroner heard that the alcohol and ketamine in her system formed a lethal combination which led to Ellie suffering a cardiac arrest.

Festival-goers and paramedics tried to revive her, before she was taken to hospital and pronounced dead later that night.

The teenager, from Glastonbury, Somerset, was a former pupil at prestigious Wells Cathedral School after winning a scholarship and bursary for her maths and English skills.

She was looking forward to going travelling and studying a law degree before her death.

The dangerous drug Ketamine was upgraded yesterday - just minutes after a coroner heard how Ellie died when she experimented with a small dose of the horse tranquiliser

Her devastated father Anthony Rowe, 58, a self-employed caretaker, paid tribute to his daughter following the inquest.

Ellie had attained the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award a few months before her death. Her family will pick up her posthumous award from Prince Phillip in London in March.

The teenager was also a dedicated Army Cadet and outdoors thrillseeker who had taken part in bungee jumps, rock climbing and white water rafting. She had cycled more than 100 miles in Bulgaria the week before she died.

Festival-goers and paramedics tried to revive her, before she was taken to hospital and pronounced dead later that night

'I always imagined if any harm came to her it would be on a bungee jump or canoeing down a fierce river or in an accident on a mountain - but nothing like this,' said Mr Rowe today.

'She was so sensible. It’s an absolute tragedy for our family. It was one act of stupidity that has destroyed a family,' he added.

Pathologist Dr Adnan Al-Badri, who performed a post-mortem examination on Ellie’s body concluded she died from central nervous system depression.

The alcohol and Ketamine in her system formed a lethal combination which led to Ellie suffering a cardiac arrest

'The combination of the alcohol and Ketamine caused more damage than if she had taken alcohol or ketamine on their own,' he said.

A toxicology test revealed the teenager had 88mg/100ml of alcohol in her blood - the equivalent to three pints of beer. She had a small dose of 2.14mg/100ml of ketamine in her blood - the second-lowest fatal dosage of the drug ever recorded.



Dr Al-Badri said the amount of ketamine was at the 'low end of the spectrum' and consistent with a medical dose used by anaesthetics to put patients under before operations.

The drug, which comes in powder form, is also famously used as a horse tranquiliser.

Sarah Whitby, the Assistant Deputy Coroner for Hampshire, recorded a narrative verdict and said: 'It was not an accident, she deliberately took the Ketamine.

'She was 18. It was not that she was a habitual drug user. She didn’t even think about it.'



The Government has faced repeated calls to upgrade ketamine to a Class B drug, and announced the change minutes after the inquest concluded.

Mr Rowe said: “This is a powerful and dangerous drug - especially when it is mixed with alcohol. People need to be aware that they are taking their lives in their hands.

'We as a family fully support the change to make it a Class B drug.

'Hopefully now this brings more awareness to the dangerous of ketamine and it is taken a bit more seriously as a drug.'

WHY LETHAL KETAMINE HAS BEEN UPGRADED FROM CLASS C TO B

In December last year, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs said that ketamine should be upgraded from Class C to B. That recommendation has now been accepted by Home Secretary Theresa May.

Ketamine has been linked to a string of deaths and achieved notoriety when the Reverend Paul Flowers - the disgraced ex-boss of the Co-op bank - was caught trying to buy the drug.

Originally designed as an anaesthetic and tranquilliser, often used on horses during veterinary surgery, ketamine was first banned as a recreational drug in 2006.

Once the drug is upgraded to Class B, people caught with it in their possession could face up to five years in prison and ketamine dealers could be jailed for up to 14 years.

Other Class B drugs include cannabis, amphetamines, such as speed, and barbiturates.

The ACMD said users of the club drug need to be made aware of the long-term risk.

In a statement released through the family, Ellie’s mother Wendy Teasdill, 56, a yoga teacher from Glastonbury, Somerset, said: 'Ellie was the vibrant heart of our family. Six months later, we are still in a state of shock that she is no longer with us.

'To our disbelief, we have to accept that Ellie - like tens of thousands of other young people - experimented with ketamine. On August 8, her luck ran out and she went on a journey of no return.'

Mrs Teasdill said she believed it was the third time her daughter had tried ketamine, adding: 'Ellie was a highly intelligent person who would like to research everything.

'From the contents of her cat’s food, to poets involved in her A-Levels, to biographies of the actors in Harry Potter movies - no fact was too obscure for Ellie.

'That she may have failed to research the effects of ketamine on the body beggars belief. It is well documented that alcohol and ketamine do not go well together.

'For an intelligent person, Ellie did a very stupid thing. Perhaps she thought she was taking a calculated risk, or perhaps she was tired of thinking.'

Mrs Teasdill continued: 'Nothing will bring back our beautiful daughter.