KetamineKetamine (ketamine hydrochloride)
Special K, Vitamin K, New Ecstasy, Psychedelic Heroin, Ketalar, Ketaject, Super-K.
A combination of Ketamine and cocaine is called "CK."
Ketamine is an anesthetic with analgesic and psychedelic properties chemically related to phencyclidine (PCP, angel dust). Ketamine was widely used during the Vietnam war for emergency surgery. It first appeared as a street drug in America during the early seventies in a variety of forms. It ranged from its liquid pharmaceutical state for injecting, to pills to be taken orally, to powders intended for sniffing up the nose, and a formulation for smoking.
It has recently become clear that ketamine has a significant recreational usage. Ketamine appears to have emerged from the same dance culture which has embraced ecstasy. The drug's appeal may be derived from its chemical similarity to PCP, which has been known to put users into 'overdrive – presumably useful for all night dancing.Ketamine takes effect over varying time periods depending on the route of administration - from 30 seconds for intravenous injection to 20 minutes taken orally - and the effects can last up to three hours. Like PCP, ketamine is a "dissociative" anesthetic, causing patients to feel detached and remote from their immediate environment.Users say that the key to the ketamine experience in sub-anesthetic doses is dissociation. The users have a different point of view outside the body and self. Because of this, some psychotherapists have experimented with ketamine to test its potential as a psychotherapeutic tool. Users report that although ketamine's psychological effects come on and recede faster than with LSD, the effects are similar. The effects include hallucinations, synaesthesis ("seeing" sounds and "hearing" colors), euphoria, depersonalization and confusion, plus the powerful dissociative or 'out -of-body' (flying or floating) sensations that appear to be specific to ketamine. As with other hallucinogens, a "good" or "bad" experience is often determined by the user's expectations and experience. However, there have been reported feelings of aggression and stimulation, which resemble PCP.Reported physical effects include an initial cocaine-like 'rush', vomiting and nausea, slurring of speech and vision, numbness and ataxia (irregular muscle coordination).
Aside from the risks of injecting, which is common to all drugs, it is ketamine's anesthetic properties which pose the main physical dangers. Users under the influence of ketamine are less likely to feel pain. Some users do not realize they are hallucinating because they believe what is happening is real, which can put the person at risk for serious injury. In anesthetic doses, ketamine also induces cataleptic state of muscle rigidity. This causes a patient that is placed in one position not to be able to subsequently move themselves until the effect has worn off. Together these properties make ketamine very useful in emergency surgery, although very dangerous as a recreational drug. In one case, an intravenous ketamine user was admitted to a hospital because he was suffering from unusual tongue and neck movements, which left him unable to speak. There have been other reports of temporary paralysis.As with any anesthetic, eating or drinking in the hours prior to use could cause vomiting. This could be particularly dangerous if too much is taken and the user falls unconscious. If the dose exceeds the standard surgical dose, then there is the risk or respiratory collapse or heart failure. However, ketamine deaths appear to be rare, only one case is cited anecdotally in the literature with no precise reference given.
