Ketamine - Overview
Overview
The anesthetic ketamine was developed as an alternative to PCP for use in humans. Ketamine, a fast-acting drug, was discovered by Dr. Calvin Stevens of Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, in the early 1960s. It was considered a breakthrough drug in the field of anesthesia because of its ability to bring on sleep, relieve pain, and produce short-term memory loss in surgical patients. In addition, its anesthetic actions would not depress, or slow down, the breathing process. Doctors enthusiastically embraced the use of ketamine in the operating room, thinking the drug would make their patients feel more relaxed and comfortable when they awoke from surgery.
Ketamine was first used on patients in 1970. The U.S. military even used it as a battlefield anesthetic during the Vietnam war (1954–1975). However, with the increased use of ketamine came more and more reports of its unusual side effects. Many people who were given the anesthetic in prescribed doses in a medical setting experienced bizarre hallucinationsVisions or other perceptions of things that are not really present. when they began regaining consciousness. Some claimed that they met up with dead relatives and friends, talked to angels, and had out-of-body experiences. As a result, the medical use of ketamine on humans dropped considerably.
Ketamine use has also been linked to brain damage. As of 2005, ketamine was used mainly by veterinarians on animals as an intravenousInjected into a vein. or intramuscularInjected into a muscle. anesthetic.
From Experimental Hallucinogen to Club Drug
The use of hallucinogens—drugs that can produce hallucinations and distort reality—skyrocketed in the 1970s. Hallucinogens such as LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) became extremely popular during this era of social and political upheaval. (A separate entry on LSD is available in this encyclopedia.) Stories about ketamine's effects soon captured the interest of experimental drug users. Ketamine use produces "trips," which are basically extended hallucinations of an intense and usually very visual nature. Ketamine trips are similar to those of other, better-known hallucinogenic drugs. However, ketamine—widely known as Special K—never really became a mainstream drug in the 1970s.
Later, with the emergence of the raveOvernight dance parties that typically involve huge crowds of people, loud techno music, and illegal drug use. scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s, ketamine gradually resurfaced as a club drug. Though used much less frequently than ecstasy (MDMA) or methamphetamine, ketamine became increasingly popular among young people in the middle and late 1990s. (Entries on ecstasy and methamphetamine are available in this encyclopedia.) According to "An Overview of Club Drugs: Drug Intelligence Brief," published by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), "a significant number of veterinary clinics" were being robbed around that time "specifically for their ketamine stock." These robberies came about because ketamine is a difficult drug to synthesize, or make in a laboratory. Some users found that it was actually easier to steal it than it was to make it.
In 1995, ketamine was added to the DEA's Emerging Drugs List, indicating that it was recognized as a threatening new substance among drug users. Four years later, on August 12, 1999, ketamine became illegal in the United States. It is considered a Schedule III drug according to the terms of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970.
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