Ketamine
Ketamine is a powerful anaesthetic with painkilling and hallucinogenic properties. Originally created for use in animal surgery, it's increasingly used for recreational purposes.
History
Ketamine was developed by US pharmacist Calvin Stevens in 1962 in an attempt to find a safer anaesthetic alternative to PCP, which is more likely to cause hallucinations and seizures. Nowadays, ketamine is widely used in veterinary medicine as an anaesthetic. It was famously used on American soldiers during the Vietnam War as an emergency anaesthetic, and although it's still used in human medicine, it's only done so in select cases since it can produce some extremely unpleasant side-effects such as extreme nausea and disturbing out-of-body experiences.
The drug was used in psychiatric research throughout the '70s and was further popularised by the studies of psychoanalyst John C Lilly, who invented the isolation tank and was once, incidentally, an advisor to film maker George Lucas. Lilly carried out a series of experiments in which he analysed the experiences of humans who took psychadelic drugs (including ketamine) in an isolation tank or in the company of dolphins. Yes, that's right, dolphins. The results of these experiments are documented in Lilly's books, including The Scientist and The Center of the Cyclone.
While recreational use of ketamine took off in the '60s, it didn't extend beyond the USA until the late '70s. In 1999, the USA made ketamine a controlled substance, which means possession for recreational purposes is an offence. In the UK, ketamine became a Class C drug in January 2006.
Chemistry
The chemical name for ketamine is 2-(o-chlorophenyl)-2-(methylamino) cyclohexanone (hydrochloride) or C13H16CINO for short. The drug acts on the body by blocking certain brain receptors. This can effectively numb the body, and users often report feeling removed from their sense of reality. Ketamine is also dose-specific, which means the strength of the effects is determined by the amount taken.
While most anaesthetics slow breathing and heart rate, ketamine does the opposite by speeding up heart rate and increasing blood pressure. Excessive doses can cause serious breathing problems, unconsciousness or heart failure.
Production
Ketamine available for recreational use has generally been diverted from a legitimate source (such as veterinary centres) which have obtained the drug from a licensed laboratory.
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