| Ketamine: Harm Reduction Advice |
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Drug Information - Ketamine Ketamine is an anaesthetic with strong mental effects, which can also act as a hallucinogen. It is commonly referred to as a “horse tranquiliser”, though it is used widely in many other types of veterinary – as well as human – medicine. Its effects are often euphoric, but will also result in numbness and disconnection with your surroundings. In large doses it can lead to intense hallucinations, and a sort of out-of-body experience known as a “K-hole”. Prolonged use can result in addiction and cause health problems, particularly with your bladder, as well as affecting memory. It usually comes as a powder, although sometimes as a liquid. It is mainly snorted or injected (when dissolved in water), very occasionally it may be swallowed or dissolved in liquid and drunk. Effects When snorting the drug, the effects come on quite quickly, usually within 5-20 minutes, and will last for about an hour. Users feel very relaxed, often euphoric, and physical effects will normally include sensations of detachment from your body and even difficulty in controlling your limbs or walking. Ketamine can be a powerful hallucinogenic drug. Some find the trip unpleasant or frightening, many like it. While many users claim that the experience of a “K-hole” can be quite profound, it can also be profoundly alarming to become so detached from reality. You need much less ketamine to get a very strong effect than you do of other drugs like cocaine, MDMA and mephedrone. So if you’re going to take it, you should start with a small amount and wait a short while for the effects to kick in. Around 20-30mg (roughly a third of the size of a line of cocaine) or MDMA would be an average milder dose (for snorting), but different people react very differently to the same amount of ketamine. If you want to take more, then build up amounts gradually. Stay Safe It is important that you avoid drinking alcohol if taking ketamine. The two drugs interact to produce some potentially very dangerous side-effects, and can leave you much more prone to dizziness and vomiting. You should also never take ketamine when you are alone, or leave someone alone who has taken ketamine. It is a ‘dissociative anaesthetic’ medicine – ‘dissociative’ because it cuts you off from reality, and ‘anaesthetic’ because it makes you unable to move and feel as you normally would. Even if someone seems fine after taking ketamine, they are much more likely to have an accident, even doing everyday things that don’t seem dangerous, like making a cup of tea. Some users have drowned while having a bath or died from hypothermia/exposure when lying outside. You are likely to get lost or get into trouble if you are out somewhere so ketamine is best taken inside, in a safe environment, and with someone around who hasn’t taken it themselves. Harms Ketamine can be addictive, so watch your use. Most people aren’t aware that they are becoming addicted to ketamine until it is too late. You might start taking it only every other weekend, then find yourself bingeing all weekend, and then start taking it during the week. If you end up needing more and more ketamine to get the same feeling and taking it more than a couple of times a week, you are probably developing a ketamine problem. Talk to someone about this if you can. While some people enjoy taking ketamine now and again without suffering serious problems, being addicted to it will mess up your life, and can result in severe medical consequences. There are also few facilities in the UK that currently offer support for ketamine addiction. Ketamine is a drug capable of permanently damaging your organs through heavy use. Just as smoking cigarettes can damage your lungs and drinking alcohol heavily can destroy your liver, so ketamine can damage your bladder. A new medical condition called ‘ketamine-induced ulcerative cystitis’ has been discovered which comes with heavy use of the drug. Ketamine-cystitis will start with the need to use the toilet frequently, which is often accompanied by a burning sensation and severe pain when urinating or even blood in your urine. This is similar to ordinary cystitis, but it doesn’t respond to any of the usual cystitis treatments, like antibiotics. Stopping taking ketamine will help, but in some cases damage is irreversible. People with ketamine-cystitis can end up having their bladders removed, which leaves you unable to urinate naturally for the rest of your life, and if you’re male, you probably will not be able to get an erection or have children. If you take ketamine and start experiencing any symptoms of cystitis, seek medical help immediately and tell your GP that you take ketamine. Heavy ketamine use can also have alarming effects on your memory. Ketamine changes the chemical messengers in your brain, and interrupts the normal flow of one chemical that is really important in memory. People who take large amounts of ketamine report very patchy memories even when not on the drug, and tend to ‘sketch out’ a lot. This is bad news for how well you can study or cope with work. The good news is that it seems this effect might reverse if you stop taking ketamine. The Law In 2006 ketamine became a Class C drug, which means it is now illegal to possess or supply. Also, because ketamine is difficult to distinguish from Class A drugs by its appearance and odour alone, being caught in possession of even very small amounts would likely result in arrest. It should also be noted that although ketamine is of a relatively low classification, (below cannabis), there is much evidence to indicate that it may well be more harmful than its Class C status would suggest. However, it has significant medical and veterinary uses that would be adversely affected by an upgrading of its classification, and there is no evidence that furthering the criminalisation of ketamine users would reduce its prevalence or the harm ketamine causes. |