Made in China: Club Drugs Our World

In China, one drug, a decades-old anaesthetic, is getting a new life

on the club scene. It is called ketamine.

Chinese drug gangs are raking in huge profits. They figured out how

to make large batches of cheap ketamine, something once thought to

be technically impossible. I am Celia Hatton, I will take you into

the Fortress, the Chinese village at the heart of the country's struggle

with ketamine. I will find out why ketamine is so popular inside China,

and how that is affecting the rest of the world.

The southern Chinese province of Guangdong, the beating heart of

China's economy. Workers here create almost everything stamped Made in

China. Mainstream manufacturing is not what it used to be. Once rampant

growth is slowing down. But the Chinese mafia is flourishing here,

sometimes in competition, sometimes in partnership with the Chinese

authorities. Gangs profit by manufacturing and selling their own

product. A top choice, synthetic drugs. They can be made by anyone

with the right knowledge, equipment, and access to the right people. The

border city of Shenzhen comes into its own that night. It flows freely

here, having just eclipsed Hereward to become the most -- second most

common drug found in police raids. Crystal meth is still the most

common. We can to find out why. On the dance floor, those with money

and energy to burn come out to play. For many, alcohol is not

enough. They rent private rooms in karaoke bars, far away from prying

eyes. We shot this footage with a secret camera. Young men at the

start of a big night don't waste time pulling out small bags of white

crystallised powder, ketamine. Using credit cards and plastic straws,

they cut the drug into lines and inhale. Users say ketamine lift them

out of their bodies, sending them off into other worlds. They say they

can fly or float, they can escape reality. But reality is hard to

ignore as night gives way today. If ketamine, a powerful anaesthetic,

makes someone unconscious over and over again, what happens to that

person's mind and body? In nearby quango, one of China's largest

private drug rehabilitation facilities has some answers. They

treat hundreds of patients at a time for a host of addictions. Each month

there is a sizeable jump in the number is struggling with ketamine,

some as young as 14. It is the patient's families who normally sign

them into this clinic, so not everyone stays here voluntarily.

That explains the locked doors and pass on the windows. Acupuncture is

prescribed to almost every patient. By stimulating nerves just below the

skin, it is thought to ease withdrawal symptoms and anxiety. The

clinic is also filled with distractions from drugs. This man

couldn't function without ketamine just three weeks ago. He was brought

to the clinic by his distraught parents.

He turned his back on ketamine, first entering the army, then

finding work as a police officer. Because care to mean is so cheap, it

is the first drug Chinese teenagers may try. I met another patient in

the clinic's mass such room. -- massage.

If you left this clinic right now, how long would it take you to find

some ketamine? He has been here for just two weeks,

and already he is anxious to leave. Our job is waiting for him at his

uncle's restaurant, north in Beijing. He tells me he is ready to

start a new life. But even if the clinic's patients unchain themselves

mentally from ketamine, they might suffer a lifetime of physical

problems. Chronic catamenia is raffish as the kidneys and the

bladder. Some have had to have their bladders removed. It causes

neurological damage as well, although doctors admit they are

still unsure what the drug is capable of. What is the biggest

problem you have with ketamine at the moment? Rising ketamine use

leads to another question, who is profiting from this drug? Ketamine

can be made anywhere, but there is one town that is known for it.

Ideally placed near the Gateway city of Hong Kong, few know the name of

this time until it made headlines. At the end of 2013, an extraordinary

event was broadcast live on Chinese A police raid

on Boshe that took six years to plan The raid on China's famed drug

village started at 4:00am. 3,000 military police descended

in waves, sweeping the streets. Locals called Boshe the Fortress

because until that day it seemed Among them, the Communist Party

secretary of Boshe, part of the Three tons of meth were found,

as well as piles of cash, gold and countless guns,

even an explosives factory. Police also uncovered something they

weren't expecting - They had little idea ketamine had

also become a key product We wanted to interview the police

but they would not go on the record. Finally, one officer who was

in Boshe agreed to talk. He did not want to show us

his face or use his name. We watched a Chinese

documentary about the raid. That raid was successful, yes, but

the officer admits that China has Drug-making is still taking place

in the shadows. Boshe and the surrounding area have

seen several more raids in the last year and hundreds more

have been arrested. The Chinese authorities are

also battling themselves. High-level police must tackle

corrupt officials shielding I wanted to get closer to Boshe just

to see what it is like It was time to pay a visit to

the Fortress. 15 minutes away, we change vehicles,

knowing that foreign reporters won't be welcome in Boshe

by locals or by edgy police. We are going to be heading

into the drug village now. We have varying reports

about how dangerous it is. In the past, some of the villagers

had guns and grenades with which We know that things have calmed

down a bit in the past year. But even so,

we are going to be going into the village on this tuk-tuk

vehicle, which will blend in a bit. And because I'm the only foreigner

in the group, I'm going to try my We are pulling this curtain

across now. It feels like we are being

smuggled into this village. Entering the village,

piles of garbage are everywhere. But rising above them,

Boshe's millionaire row, mansions bought with drug money,

and which now sit empty. We stopped for a moment

in the square. Wealthy drug makers used to burn

sacks of real money here A historical temple highlights

Boshe's deep roots. This village dates back to

the 1200s. Everywhere we go,

we attract unfriendly looks. Recently, 13 more locals received

the death penalty for trafficking. We have been warned that more raids

are planned for the village, so we drove just outside Boshe to

meet a local farmer. His grandparents all

worked this land. This farm is quite

literally dying off. He says that chemical run-off

from the illegal drug production in the village just over there has

poisoned this water and polluted The remnants of the drug trade

are scattered everywhere. It is impossible to grow

untainted crops here now. Here, we can see why he

will not leave Boshe. He will not abandon

the traditional courtyard built by his grandfather and he will not

leave his grandmother. Bubbling on the stove, a special

soup he makes for his cows. He insists it protects them

from the poisoned land. Over tea, he tells us that if drug

production continues here, his land will become more contaminated,

that is when this family will Photos of the villages' most wanted

paper this police checkpoint. The red stamps show

the ones who have been captured. Then we meet someone familiar

with the fugitives. It took months to arrange,

but one man who knows Boshe's drug We agreed to hide his face

and his name. He told us that he was not involved

in actually making drugs but his relatives,

including his ex-wife, his current fiance and her family, were all

arrested in that big raid on Boshe. That is how ketamine

and other drugs were made on But Boshe's success became

a weakness. How easy is it to move

a drug making lab? If you have to move one,

how quickly can you do it? The gangs were outwitted

in that big raid, but overall, Boshe is minutes away from this

port, which is famous for smuggling. In the '90s,

Boshe profited from contraband The drug trade still dominates

this part of China. Despite police efforts,

ketamine is a significant export. 60% of the world's ketamine seizures

take place here, on the narrow That is thought to be a fraction

of the ketamine that is consumed The escape the drug offers is

in demand. And our contact says there

will always be a supply. At the UN, it is pushing

for ketamine to come under tighter Groups like the World Health

Organisation argue ketamine is a crucial emergency anaesthetic

needed in poor countries. The petition was shelved

until next year. By that time, China's problem with

illicit ketamine might have spread even further beyond

the area famous for making it. But it is home to

a dangerously cheap drug, one with heavy consequences

for those who cannot give it up. Seldom do we get storms as powerful

as Storm Frank in the Atlantic. Here