What’S The Deal With Ketamine?

What’s the Deal with Ketamine?
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Ketamine is just another in a long line of drugs that can harm you.


Ketamine masquerades under many names: Special K, Super K, Vitamin K and “Make-Her-Mine.” These code names are used because they are thought to be cool and to fool the authorities. However, using ketamine as a recreational drug is anything but cool. This drug incapacitates the user, making him or her vulnerable to any dangers in their path. This can be anything from a sexual predator to a bathtub full of water.

In March 2011, a 21-year-old girl took the drug before having a bath. She wanted to relax and fell asleep in the tub, slid under the water and drowned. Her friend found her an hour later. This story is just one of many where people, frequently youth, die or are harmed after taking ketamine.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has ketamine on its lists of date rape drugs. Ketamine causes the user to become sleepy, uncoordinated, and confused. They often have trouble speaking or can’t speak at all. In some cases, ketamine has made the user unconscious or paralyzed and they may not remember what happened while they were high. These symptoms are all ideal for a predator.

Ketamine users aren’t just vulnerable in dangerous situations, the drug is harmful even if you are alone, resting in a comfortable chair. It increases the heart rate, respiratory depression, increased blood pressure, and vomiting. Users have varied symptoms and can also feel euphoric and hallucinate. They usually don’t feel much pain. This means that someone who is injured while on ketamine may not seek medical help and could further harm himself or bleed to death. Someone high on ketamine could choke on his own vomit.

This drug is not typically used on people, although it has been approved for people. It is mostly used by veterinarians as an injectable anesthetic and is frequently referred to as a horse tranquilizer. However, people have been taking it recreationally since the 1980s. It is usually found as a white or clear powder and can be consumed orally, injected, smoked, or snorted. Gram for gram, it is considered more powerful than cocaine or amphetamines. Users, who take a large amount of ketamine, expecting it to be similar to other recreational drugs, are much more likely to overdose or harm themselves.

People have slightly different experiences, depending on how the drug is taken. If it is snorted, the effects are felt within about 10 minutes and last for an hour. Ketamine that is injected into the muscles is felt within four minutes. If the drug is taken orally, the effects are felt up to 20 minutes later. Ketamine users frequently have violent, terrifying flashbacks days after using the drug. Ketamine still shows up in a drug test 48 hours after using it. It is frequently found at nightclubs, particularly raves, where it is believed to enhance the experience.

Ketamine is sometimes considered to be non-addictive because users are not usually drawn to the drug after the first use as with other, more addictive substances. However, ketamine is still addictive. Ketamine users develop a tolerance to the drug and start craving it. Eventually, repeat users develop a dependence on the drug until they are displaying behaviors of other addicts, like spending all their money on it.

Ketamine was first developed in 1962. By the 1970s, it was approved for use in humans and was used during the Vietnam War because its effects didn’t last as long as other drugs available at the time. The 1970s and 80s saw an increase in its use and it is currently available internationally under many brand names.