Ketamine

Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic and non-competitive NMDA antagonist. In addition to its use as an anesthetic, ketamine is also used as a research tool in modelling disorders such as schizophrenia. In at least one study, it was shown to activate the area of the prefrontal cortex linked to schizophrenia. It is also used as a model of the near-death experience.

Ketamine works by binding to and blocking glutamate receptors. It also inhibits reuptake of serotonin and noradrenalin, as well as activating serotonin metabolism and increasing subcortical release of dopamine.

Chemical structure:

     H   H
      \ /
    H--C
  H  H  \ H  O H   H
   \  \  \|  \\ \ /
    C--C  N   C--C   H
   //  \\  \ /    \ /
H-C      C--C      C
   \    /    \    / \
    C==C      C--C   H
   /    \    /|  |\
  H     Cl  H H  H H

Sources:
http://ams.cu.edu.tr/January1998Vol7No1/ketamine.htm
http://www.biopsychiatry.com/ketamine.htm

Ketamine is also known as: 2-(2-Chlorophenyl)-2-(methylamino)-cyclohexanone hydrochloride, Vitamin K and Special K.

Chemically, it is related to PCP but produces more profound acid-like experiences in low doses. Frequently produces bad trips, psychotic reactions and extreme violence in its users (kinda like Windows :-)).

For those do-it-yourselfers out there, the chemical formula is:

C₁₃H₁₇C₁₂NO

The other day, a friend of mine found some Ketamine. Needless to say, my weekend has been a little messed up. I find K to be a little interesting, rather powerful, etc.

Preparation:

Assuming you have a bottle with the syringe type opening, get a syringe, and suck a nice measured amount into the tube. Measure based on the mg of K versus ml of liquid. Check erowid.org for good dosage measurements. Then squirt it out into a spoon and boil it off over a candle. A powdery type crust will be left on the spoon. Scrape that off and dice it with a razor blade.

Doing it

Just snort it.

Feeling it

Personally, I would consider K to be more of a novelty drug than a mind expanding one. I took it the last couple of nights, and it really made me tired afterward. It does do some strange things, that I would consider textbook disassociation, but then again, I have never tried PCP.

Be warned, it is a Schedule III controlled substance.

I've used K on one or two occasions (after-prom party my senior year, and once other). I never found it to have any psychedelic quality - it actually feels remarkably like being drunk, but without the related ill effects (i.e. nausea and hangover) Ketamine does have a slightly more mellow quality to it than alcohol - it's not that you're too drunk to get up and move around, you just can't be bothered. This feeling is pretty well-documented, and called the K-hole.

I agree with nutate that ketamine's no mind-expander. But it's great for chilling, preferably with some friends.

Be warned: you will not be motivated to do anything at all, for pretty much any reason, while under the influence of this drug. I distinctly remember that I couldn't be bothered to reach for the remote when a shitty tv show came on.

Ketamine is also known as Special K or just plain K. This drug is a pain reliever and muscle relaxant that has been used and abused for quite some time, but happens to be growing in popularity particularly at raves, where Ecstacy (aka Ex or E) and acid are typically more common. Despite being a prescription drug Ketamine isn't legal for human consumption! That's right, because they're cat tranquilizers.

Ketamines do have their beginnings in the seventies where they were used as a pain reliever for soldiers in the Vietnam War who had been seriously wounded in combat. Ketamines were used because they would completely relax the soldier, giving him no control over his muscles whatsoever. Also, when injected Ketamines take less than 30 seconds to take effect, in fact it is a good idea to make sure someone being injected with ketamines is lying down because he or she will begin to come under the effect of the drug before the injection is complete.

Ketamines have not been in use for humans in the seventies, however smaller doses are now given to cats to relax them, or in larger doses to knock them out for surgery. The easy accessibility of prescription drugs for pets has made Ketamines very popular. This drug can be swallowed in pill form or snorted, though it is most effective when it is injected sub-cutaneously.

Users of Ketamines will act in a slowed-down fashion and have reported afterwards to feel largely disconnected from their body, as if the mind and body had become seperated. Some have also reported some psychedelic effects. While this drughas not recieved very much media attention, particularly compared to the wildly popular drug ecstacy it is likely that it will get more attention as it spreads out of clubs in the New York City and Boston and its popularity spreads out across the United States.

The people above who stated that Ketamine isn't used in humans any more are incorrect. It is still used in places when the patient is having breathing problems and the respiratory system can't be depressed any more. Ketamine doesn't depress the respiratory system like other anaesthesia drugs, so it is useful in places where a person has a pneumothorax, aka collapsed lung.

The intense hallucinations mentioned above are brought on by injection. You don't have to do this intravenously, you can just inject it intramuscularly. The trip thus produced is far more intense than anything brought about by mushrooms or LSD.

I did this once, and I had no idea what other world I was in. When I finally came to, I found myself staring at a screen saver. Someone else I was with completely lost his shit, and refused to give us another kid's K. He was extremely paranoid and very difficult to talk to. When he spoke, each word was understandable, but the sentence as a whole was not.

Most people snort K, however. This I have never found to produce hallucinations. It just makes you feel weird, as adequately described above. I'll just add that when I dance on K, I get this sort of out of body experience. It's really cool, but not cool enough to be addictive.

Ketamine and your health

As can be imagined, a drug with such powerful effects has potential consequences and associated risks.

In line with most other drugs of abuse and alcohol, Ketamine has been linked with depression and anxiety when used to excess or in combinations with other drugs. Perhaps more interestingly, low doses of ketamine have been successfully used to help individuals with serious depression. Two other interesting elements arising from the initial study were that the patients had been non-responsive to at least two courses of antidepressants and that the improvement in mood was felt within hours rather than the weeks traditional antidepressants take before there is a any noticeable effect.

http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/42/17/16

Ketamine is dangerous when mixed with alcohol, at high enough doses there is the potential for the heart and lungs to shut down, at lower doses there is the risk of unconsciousness and choking on vomit.

Longer term, in 2006, there was a study in Hong-Kong linking longer term ketamine abuse with urinary problems. The problems seemed to be very serious in nature although the investigators seemed unclear whether the problems had been caused by ketamine or a local cutting agent. Since then, further information has been difficult to find.

http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S009042950700101X