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Ketamine

Brand / Generic Names

Ketalar, Ketajet, Ketaset

Street Names

Special K,  Ket, K, Green, Super C, Vitamin K, Super Acid, Special LA Coke, Baby Food, God, Jet, Honey Oil, Gas

History of Ketamine

Abuse of ketamine (pronounced Kee-ta-meen) goes hand in hand with gamma hydroxy butyrate (GHB) and MDMA (Ecstasy). Where you find one, you will likely find the others. All three are very popular with the RAVE party crowd. Ketamine hcl, a cat tranquilizer and the most commonly used anesthetic in the Vietnam War. It was popular in the 70's. Ketamine is a psychedelic anesthetic classified medically as a dissociative anesthetic, discovered by Dr. Cal Stevens of Wayne State University in 1961. Heavily used on the battlefields of Vietnam, it is used today for short-term surgical procedures in both animals and humans. It is sold only to hospitals and physicians. Since it does not depress critical body vitals, it is often used in procedures with burn victims for example.

Possible Side Effects of Ketamine

It produces a disassociative state in the central nervous system in which amnesia and profound analgesia (loss of pain) are induced, though the patient does not appear to be asleep. This ability to induce a lack of awareness to the environment is the effect abusers crave. It may produce pleasant dream-like states, vivid imagery, hallucination and possibly extreme delirium. This usually lasts only a few hours. Excitement and visual disturbances can recur days or weeks after exposure to ketamine; the problem with "flashbacks" may be greater with ketamine than with other hallucinogens. It also produces ataxia slurring of speech, dizziness, confusion, blurred vision, anxiety and insomnia. Tolerance and psychological dependence can develop with daily exposure. Chronic users may have short-term memory loss, impaired vision or attention span limitations. There are at least seven Ketamine-related deaths nationally.