The Truth about Ketamine
Ketamine is a Scheduled III controlled substance.
Ketamine hydrochloride, or "Special K," is a powerful hallucinogen
widely used as an animal tranquilizer by veterinarians. Users
sometimes call the high caused by Special K, "K hole," and describe
profound hallucinations that include visual distortions and a lost
sense of time, sense, and identity. The high can last from a
half-hour to 2 hours. The Drug Enforcement Administration reports
that overt effects can last an hour but the drug can still affect
the body for up to 24 hours.
Use of Special K can result in profound physical and mental
problems including delirium, amnesia, impaired motor function and
potentially fatal respiratory problems.
Special K is a powder. The drug is usually snorted, but is
sometimes sprinkled on tobacco or marijuana and smoked. Special K
is frequently used in combination with other drugs, such as
ecstasy, heroin or cocaine.
Liquid Ketamine was developed in the early 1960s as an anesthetic
for surgeries, and was used on the battlefields of Vietnam as an
anesthetic. Powdered Ketamine emerged as a recreational drug in the
1970s, and was known as "Vitamin K" in the 1980s. It resurfaced in
the 1990s rave scene as "Special K."
