A British ketamine addict who spent five months in a Japanese jail after drugs were sent to her in a birthday card says being locked up saved her life.
Izabel Rose paid £150 for ketamine just half an hour after landing in Tokyo for what was meant to be a month-long work trip.
The 26-year-old expected the drugs to arrive by post from the UK, hidden inside a birthday card and delivered to her accommodation.
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Instead, nine Japanese police officers turned up at her door.
Izabel was arrested on the spot and spent five months behind bars awaiting trial.
She says the ordeal “brought her to her knees”, forced her to face her addiction – and gave her a new purpose in life.
“I didn’t think about the consequences,” Izabel, from Bermondsey, London, told Need To Know.
“I thought maybe if it got caught they would seize it and worst case scenario, it wouldn’t turn up.
“I paid for 7g of ketamine within half an hour of me landing, before even walking through customs, and they posted it to me in a birthday card.
“But they posted 4.6g.
“A week later, I got a knock on the door from nine police officers.
“My whole life flashed before my eyes, my stomach dropped and I was terrified.
“I was so naive and in my own world that I thought I could talk my way out of it if I apologised.
“But when you get caught up with the law, you have to ride the wave.
“I was still in denial and wouldn’t have called myself an addict.
“Only when I was in that jail in Japan, I came to my knees in a moment of desperation and realised I had a problem.”
Izabel, who worked in marketing, pleaded guilty in September and was handed a four-year suspended sentence.
She was allowed to fly home just a week later.
But the months spent locked up left deep scars.
She said: “It’s the most lonely, isolating place to be and so challenging.
“At points in the first few months, if I could have, I would have tried to end my life.
“I was suffering withdrawals and on the brink of psychosis.
“I tried to look at it as a very intense rehab and connect to my sober self.
“If I’d been in prison in the UK, I likely would have found drugs and got into more trouble.
“I’m glad I got arrested in Japan. In other countries, I could have been on death row.
“The experience reconnected me to my sober self and made me realise that’s what I want in life.
“I’ll always strive for that now.
“It helped me get into the recovery room.”
Izabel first started smoking marijuana at just 13.
By the time she went to university, her drug use spiralled, with ketamine, acid and MDMA becoming a near-weekly habit.
She said: “I grew up in an environment where using substances is normalised.
“When I went to university, I was going to gigs and parties – it escalated.
“It really ramped up and I was doing it every weekend.
“Then I moved in with some friends who would take ketamine to watch a film.
“I didn’t realise how much of a dangerous drug it is.
“When you’re looking at a white powder, you think it’s not as dangerous as a liquid that you inject but I think ketamine is just as dangerous as heroin.
“As your tolerance builds, you need more and more to feel the same effects.
“I’d come home from work and do ketamine to watch a film.
“I’d do it before bed on my own, which escalated.
“I would wake up in the morning and the first thing I’d do was take ketamine.
“I had it on me all of the time.
“At first, I was really good at hiding it. I could juggle it with my job and hobbies.
“As the addiction got worse, I got more careless.”
Izabel’s drug abuse began taking a serious toll on her health.
And when she was offered the chance to go to Japan, she hoped it would help her get clean.
She said: “After a party, I had such a bad pain in my stomach like someone was standing on me.
“I was drifting in and out of consciousness so my friends took me to A&E but I wasn’t honest with the medical staff because I was in denial.
“I was in so much pain that I’d have to sit in a hot bath for hours on end. I had the hot tap on my stomach.
“I’d leave burn marks on my stomach but the only thing that helped was a warm compress.
“Before Japan, I knew I had a problem and didn’t want to do it anymore.
“One of my friends went to rehab and turned their life around.
“I wanted that. She was a big inspiration.
“I was in denial and wouldn’t have called myself an addict.
“When I had an opportunity through work to go to Japan for a month, I decided to get out of London to stop all of the temptations.
“In London, you can get ketamine delivered to you quicker than pizza.
“I thought I’d go to Japan and be clean for a month because I hadn’t been sober since I was 13.
“I was so naive – I thought a holiday would fix me – but I didn’t understand addiction.”
Now sober, Izabel has quit her marketing career and is dedicating her life to raising awareness about addiction.
She documents her recovery journey on TikTok under the handle @hyakuban7.
She said: “In jail, I did a lot of reading on Buddhism and it changed the direction of my life.
“The purpose of life is to give to others.
“I want to help other people. I don’t want a fancy car, I want to make a positive change to other people’s lives.
“I want to speak in schools, I’m writing a book and I want to raise awareness.
“Addiction can happen to anyone and can be the cause of bad choices you wouldn’t normally make.
“My health has completely transformed.
“I can get through the whole night without going for a wee, my nose is less blocked and I’ve got an appetite again.”
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