Ketamine hydrochloride, known on the streets as Special K, is a powerful hallucinogen widely used as an animal tranquilizer by veterinarians. It was originally created for human anaesthetic, it is still used as a general anaesthetic for children, people with very poor health, and by vets. Effects from the drug are a lot like the effects of PCP. Users call the high they get from Special K "K Hole”. K Hole is described as visual distortions and users lose track of time, sense, and identity. While in the K Hole, people usually can’t move, they just stay seated or lying down during the experience. Because of these effects, it is used as a date-rape drug. Also, many people get serious injuries and disregard them because they don’t feel anything and don’t get the normal signs of pain. The high can last from a ½ hour to 2 hours. The Drug Enforcement Administration reports that users can act high for an hour but the drug can still affect the body for up to 24 hours.

Short term effects of the drug are dream-like states of hallucinations. Users say they feel like they are floating or are separated from their body. Effects also include impaired attention, learning ability, and memory. The K Hole large amounts of Ketamine creates is a lot like a “bad trip” people get from LDS. Users say they feel drunk, stoned, and tripping all at once. Long term use causes bad mental and physical problems like delirium, amnesia, impaired motor function, high blood pressure, depression, and potentially fatal respiratory problems. It can take from 2 months to 2 years for the chronic effects of Special K to wear off. Withdrawal signs include moodiness, anxiety, sweating, and agitation. Symptoms of an overdose include loss of motor control, unconsciousness, coma and even death. Special K as a powder is usually snorted, but it can be laced into tobacco or marijuana and smoked. The liquid for can be injected, used in drinks, or added to tobacco and pot. It is odorless and tasteless, and that’s why it’s so easy for people to slip it into a drink, and therefore, use it as a date-rape drug! It is also produced as a pill. The pill is taken orally or crushed and smoked or mixed with water and injected. Special K is frequently used with other drugs, the popular choices to add to Special K are ecstasy, heroin, and cocaine. Taking Ketamine with downers (like alcohol, Valium, or GHB) is extremely dangerous!

This is one users description of the high from the drug Ketamine.
“If you’re on a dancefloor, music can sound so heavy, weird and strangely compelling, lights see, very intense and physical so-ordination can fall apart along with an overall feeling of numbness. Some people feel paralyzed by the drug, unable to speak without slurring, while other, like myself, either feel sick or throw up.”

Here, another now sober, user warns about the drug Ketamine.
“Be extremely careful how much Ketamine you take - it’s stronger than the same amount of speed or coke and the more you wolf down, the stronger the effects. Accept that you may well be in for a rough ride with the drug as its effects and unpredictable and sometimes very confusing. Try not to mix it with other drugs, particularly alcohol. Make sure you take it in a safe environment with friends who know what you’re up to. Remember, it’s an anaesthetic, so if you hurt yourself you may not feel and pain. Like all drugs, it’s best to be in good mental and physical health before taking anything!”

Liquid Ketamine was developed in the 1960s by Calvin Stevens at Park Davis Labs as an anesthetic to replace PCP for surgeries, it was also used on the battlefields of Vietnam as an anesthetic. Powdered Ketamine didn’t emerge as a recreational drug until the 1970s, and was known as "Vitamin K" in the 1980s. It came back in the 1990s when rave scenes came about and club drugs became popular, then it was known as "Special K." Deaths related to drugs popular at raved have increased a lot in the past decade. Ketamine is illegal, possession can result in long prison terms! Legislation was classified as a Class C drug under the Under the Drugs Act 2005, with the legislation taking effect from January 1st 2006, the maximum penalty for possession is 2 years in prison and 14 years for supply. You can also get an unlimited fine for both.

Ketamine is known on the streets as jet, Ketalar, Kitkat, blind squid, Kid Rock, Make-Her-Mine, super acid, Special K, green, K, Super K, and cat Valium. It comes in a clear liquid and white or off-white powder. Many users of Ketamine have been robbing veterinary clinics for the drug and a lot of Ketamine has been being brought in to US from Mexico. On the streets, Special K costs, on the average, $20- $25 per dosage. But it takes a higher dose than this to create the K Hole effect.

Most people snort small lines (bumps) for a dreamy effect, the effect comes on within about 5 or 10 minutes. 100 milligrams is usually enough to enter a K Hole. If liquid is used and injected into the muscle, (Ketamine is never injected into the vein!) less of the drug is needed to enter the K- Hole. These effects are felt within about 4 minutes. If the drug is swallowed, the effects come with 10 to 20 minutes. Some users become nauseous after taking the drug. Sometimes Ketamine pills are sold in a capsule as Ecstacy, even though it’s nothing like real Ecstacy.

In a study using Ketamine, when patients suffering from complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) with a lot-dose of Ketamine, some patients made significant recovery from associated depression. The recoveries weren’t formally documented because the primary concern was the treatment of the patient’s pain. It wasn’t possible to say to what degree the depression was recovered at. Ketamine was given to patients at an increased level until the maximum tolerated dose was used. The maximum does was assumed to be therapeutic and was continually used for 5 days. The patients were able to eat, drink, watch TV, and read, but they felt unsteady when they tried to walk. If patients got hallucinations the dose was reduced. In this study, 18 patients were used, and the major depress that the patients had improved a lot within hours of injection!

“The Urban75 Guide to taking Special K at a party.
1. If you want to take Special K at a party make sure you're surrounded by vaguely sensible friends, and that you feel safe and secure in your situation. Make sure there are people looking out for you, in case you have a bad time.

2. Unless you like plummeting into a K Hole and making your hosts angry, play safe and only take a small amount (known as a 'bump' or a 'Dorothy') - about half the size of a normal line of coke.

3. We strongly suggest that you don't take nosefulls of Special K if you're visiting a friend's bar/club don't put them in a situation where they have to explain to the owner why one of their friends is a gormless, gibbering oddity.

4. If you're visiting someone's party and no one's doing Special K, show some respect and don't do it. After all, it's a party for people to talk, dance and have fun, not a place for you to self-indulgently examine your inner psyche in a slumbering heap on the dance floor.

5. If you've been invited around a friend's house for a late drink, keep the Special K to 6. yourself too: it's anti-social, self indulgent and, frankly, what right have you to inflict your monged out, incoherent presence on an affable host?

7. If you take too much Special K you can be rendered very vulnerable, so make sure you either have enough time to get it out of your system before heading home or get a friend to take you home.”

Sources:
1. http://www.urban75.com/Drugs/drugketa.html
2. http://www.newdirectionsprogram.com/special%20k.html
3. http://www.brown.edu/Student_Services/Health_Services/Health_Education/atod/od_ketamine.htm
4. http://www.xs4all.nl/~4david/ketamine.html