Katie Hopkins, one-time columnist for The Sun and The Mail Online , who currently writes for Canadian far-right publication The Rebel Media , has by her own admission collapsed in South Africa after taking “medical ketamine.”
42-year-old Hopkins suffers from epilepsy, and ketamine can sometimes be used as a treatment for a prolonged seizure. However, many of her critics have called her out over the incident, considering her use of the drug to be hypocritical in light of her checkered attitudes regarding drug use.
Only Katie Hopkins could berate the existence immigrants, call them cockroaches, want to torpedo them out the water, and have vitriol for their use of the NHS… then go to South Africa and require medical assistance for taking ket.
— Mike P Williams (@Mike_P_Williams) February 4, 2018
According to The Mirror , Hopkins had been touring South Africa as part of her blogging work, documenting what she refers to as “the violent, ethnic cleansing of white farmers by armed, black gangs.”
Hopkins position with The Mail Online ended in late 2017 “by mutual consent,” following a series of high-profile cases in which The Mail was forced to pay significant damages to several individuals whom the courts concluded that she had libeled, including a Muslim family she had allegedly falsely accused of having extremist links, and British journalist Jack Monroe over attacks on their gender identity. In the same period, she also lost her position with radio broadcaster LBC over comments she made on Twitter regarding the Manchester Arena bombing, suggesting that a “final solution” was required for extremism; critics interpreted her remarks as calling for ethnic cleansing.
Hopkins has so far contributed little to her new (as of January) position with The Rebel Media , but her current work seems to fit with the Canadian site, which has been described by the mainstream Canadian media as a “global platform” for anti-Muslim ideology; the site also featured prominent coverage of the “Unite The Right” rally in Charlottesville by reporter Faith Goldy, and following her live coverage and subsequent interview with neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer , many of The Rebel ‘s contributors left the network.
According to Metro , following her collapse and subsequent tweet, Hopkins later clarified that she had received “medical ketamine” for a “serious dislocation.” Ketamine is sometimes used to put patients to sleep before significant surgical procedures, to prevent pain and discomfort.
As per The Huffington Post UK , Hopkins’ current work in South Africa is part of a crowd-funded project ; after losing her mainstream positions, Hopkins collected money from her fans to pursue her South African tour and has expressed hopes that TV channels will bid for the broadcast rights.
Meanwhile, in spite of her collapse, Hopkins is allegedly back on her feet and continuing her South African tour.
