‘Canberra ketamine’: new recreational drug discovered at Australian pill-testing service

Scientists from The Australian National University have detected a mysterious new recreational drug not seen in Australia before, which they have named 'CanKet' Photograph: Malcolm McLeod/Australian National University

A new recreational drug dubbed CanKet, similar to ketamine but with unknown side effects, has been found by scientists at Australia’s first fixed pill-testing site.

CanTEST, a face-to-face drug-checking service, was launched in Canberra in August. Since then, almost 200 people have brought their recreational drugs in for analysis and advice based on the results. Some people choose to discard their drugs if the service finds they are laced with harmful or unexpected substances.