Ketamine

Ketamine is a fast-acting 'dissociative anaesthetic'. Rather than blocking pain, like traditional painkillers, it shuts off the brain from the body. With the brain no longer processing information from nerve pathways, awareness expands resulting in a hallucinogenic state. Since 1970, it was popular in medicine in the UK and US and all over the world as a safe anaesthetic for children and the elderly.

Ketamine

Ketamine is a totally unnatural drug and to date has never been found within any plants or animals. Many psychedelic drugs are either found in plants or have plant analogues. Numerous naturally occurring chemicals in your brain are also found in plants. The neurotransmitter serotonin is derived from tryptophan, found in bananas and pineapples and serotonin itself is found in stinging nettles and other plants. The psychedelic drug DMT is found in both the human brain and in numerous South American plants. LSD is a close relative of drugs in the ergot fungus and morning glory seeds, while psilocybin is found in magic mushrooms. This relationship between plants and the brain extends to opiates, cocaine, caffeine, cannabis and many other drugs but not Ketamine. (K. Jansen 2005)

Ketamine hydrochloride has a wide range of effects in humans including analgesia, anaesthesia, hallucinations, raised blood pressure and bronchodilation. It is primarily used for the induction and maintenance of general anaesthesia, usually in combination with some sedative drug. It is used in intensive care, for analgesia (particularly in emergency medicine), and treatment of bronchospasm. It is also a popular anaesthetic in veterinary medicine.

Ketamine hydrochloride is sold as Ketanest, Ketaset, and Ketalar. Pharmacologically, Ketamine is classified as an NMDA receptor antagonist, and at high, fully anaesthetic level doses, Ketamine has also been found to bind to opioid receptors and sigma receptors in the brain. Like other drugs of this class such as phencyclidine (PCP), it induces a state referred to as "dissociative anaesthesia" and is used as a recreational drug.

Ketamine is very short acting, its hallucinatory effects lasting fifteen minutes when snorted or ten minutes when injected and, up to an hour when ingested, the total experience lasting no more than a couple of hours. The onset is much quicker if smoked 10-15 seconds or 30 seconds when injected. Smoking the drug is reported to have a fundamentally different experience. At lower doses Ketamine can act as a stimulant and if injected could quickly suppress breathing.

At different doses Ketamine effects brain mechanisms and the body in different ways adding to the complexity of the drug. Like the other dissociative anaesthetics DXM and PCP, hallucinations caused by Ketamine are fundamentally different from those caused by tryptamines and phenethylamines.

At low doses, hallucinations are only mild, while at medium to high doses the effects are far more intense and obvious. These effects include changes in the perception of distances, scale, colour and time, as well as a slowing of the visual system's ability to update what the user is seeing. There is also a feeling of leaving ones body and seeing gods. Ketamine experiences may involve reports of floating in the air or space. This is commonly referred to as the 'K Hole'.

With regular daily users the K Hole may diminish and some users will take larger amounts to reach this point and in some cases the drug when used continuously over a period of time becomes more of a stimulant rather than a disassociative. It is commonly thought that Ketamine is a "downer". This is because of the outward appearance of the user on large doses. Ketamine is more likely to act as a stimulant especially in small doses and possibly in the long term. Ketamine is also refered to as a horse tranqualiser. It is not a tranquiliser, its is an anesthetic and it is rarely used on horses (normally dogs or cats).

Cocaine and Ketamine combined in powder (alternate lines) smoked together in 'rock' form or combined in a tablet is anecdotally referred to as CK1 – 'the ultimate designer drug', 'CK beauts' etc. Not only a combination used on the Gay scene but is now found its way to the problematic injecting user. John Lilly used both cocaine and Ketamine, possibly in combination stating "The experience is intense and weird. Imagine all the surrealism of K with the ability to take a more active role in the experience." The CK1 pill, which combines cocaine and ketamine, is the latest entrant in North Goa's tourist coast where the clandestine trade in 'club drugs' has touched a new high, according to enforcement agencies. Ketamine is being combined with many drugs including alcohol. The dangers and health considerations of these combination are not fully understood or investigated and much of the information is still anecdotal.

On 21 June 2007 Hong Kong Medical Journal posted a report regarding the misuse of 'street K'. The report suggests that long term use may result in damage to the liver or urinary bladder, or even acute renal failure. However, the researchers suspect that the damage "may be due to other toxins that the 'street ketamine' has been contaminated with". Or a metabolite such as norketamine which stays in the body for longer hours. In a study of 9 daily Ketamine users, Shahani et al found "marked thickening of the bladder wall, a small capacity, and perivesicular stranding, consistent with severe inflammation. Cessation of Ketamine use, with the addition of pentosan polysulfate, appeared to provide some symptomatic relief. Numerous other clinical and anecdotal reports from across the world are starting to see isolated incidences involving Ketamine use and urinary tract, bladder and kidney damage. Check Ketamine Bladder Report »

To date most UK deaths on ketamine are due to accidents when the user is under the influence of the drug. Mainly from falling.