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What is ketamine? It’s a powerful general anaesthetic that’s used for operations on humans and animals. The effects don’t last long, but until they wear off, ketamine can cause a loss of feelings in the body and paralysis of the muscles. It can also lead to users experiencing a distortion of reality.
Ketamine can:
It has only recently been discovered that ketamine can cause very serious bladder problems with severe pain and difficulty passing urine, and can even result in surgical removal of the bladder.
What does ketamine look like?
When used as a medical anaesthetic, ketamine is a liquid, because this makes it easy to inject.
‘Street’ ketamine is normally a grainy, white powder – although sometimes it can come as tablets.
On average, a gram of ketamine in powder form costs £20.
How is ketamine taken?
There are a number of ways of taking ketamine. No method makes it safe but injecting is very risky:
What are the effects of ketamine?
It’s a general anaesthetic that may produce ‘floaty’ feelings, but it can have negative effects instead, and other serious long-term risks:
What are the health risks of ketamine?
Some risks of ketamine have only recently been discovered, for example it can cause serious bladder damage. In fact, it’s risky in a number of ways.
What is ketamine cut with?
Users won’t know whether any ketamine they get through a dealer, even a friend, is definitely ketamine or whether it has been contaminated (or ‘cut’) with any other substances.
There have been reports of ketamine being cut with the ‘legal high’ MXE while some people have been sold ketamine which is really MXE. MXE is chemically related to ‘dissociative anaesthetics’ like ketamine and has similar effects. But it is much stronger than ketamine and extra care is needed to avoid overdosing.
Illegally produced ketamine tablets are commonly found with ephedrine added (commonly used for treatment of allergies and asthma). Sometimes, these pills are mixed with ketamine and passed off as ecstasy.
Only medicinal ketamine would be reliably pure.
Can you get addicted to ketamine?
The simple answer is – yes – you can become addicted to it. This means regular users feel the need to keep taking ketamine, in spite of the effects on their health.
Regular users can also develop tolerance to ketamine, which means they need to take increasing amounts to get the same effects.
There are no physical withdrawal symptoms, so ketamine addiction is sometimes called a ‘psychological dependence’. Dependence is just another name for addiction.
Ketamine and the law
What if you’re caught?
If the Police catch you with ketamine, they’ll always take some action. This could be a formal caution, or arrest and possible conviction.
A conviction for a drug-related offence could have a serious impact. It can stop you visiting certain countries – for example the United States – and limit the types of jobs you can apply for.
Did you know?
I know this sounds shallow, but yes I really did take K on my mum’s birthday. I started taking K at about age 13, I thought I was so cool, all my life I had hung around with older people, I didn’t get on with people my age because they weren’t as cool as the older lot. When my sister’s friends offered me my first line of K, I couldn’t refuse!
I'm now 18 and I've been smoking cannabis regularly since I was about 15 and it has, if anything made my life even better. I only smoke cannabis every weekend and sometimes smoke small amounts during the week. It hasn't had a negative effect on my life at all, I think that's because I use it sensibly only once/twice a week. As a pot smoker I passed my GCSE's and A levels. Occasionally I take speed or cocaine, but I have never used it regularly, because I know how much damage it can cause, especially if you end up dependent on it.
I started smoking weed when i was 13 this quickly developed into me taking mdma ,miaw ,coke and ketamine. im now 16 i have no one my family has disowned me beacause i lied and stole from them and and my dad cant even stand the sight of me. i cant stop taking drugs because i feel like im missing out on the nights out dont make my mistake just dont take drugs
Now I’m off ketamine, I can see how clearly it was a burden to my life. I first started to try drugs because it split up me and my boyfriend, and I figured, hey, it must be really good to split up a 2 year relationship, so, ket was the first drug I came into contact with. I liked the down feeling it had, it just pushed out all your troubles, sometimes you didn’t even know you existed.
This depends on which drug you are talking about and what method is being used to test for the drug. The list below shows the drug detection times (using a urine test) for the most common drugs:
By mixing drugs you increase the chances of having a bad time. The effects of the drugs might be greatly increased, the drugs might interact in an unexpected way or one drug may stop part of your body working properly which makes the other drug(s) that have been taken more dangerous.
All drugs are potentially dangerous and have varying effects on individuals, so it is not possible to name the worst drug. For more information on the effects and risks of various drugs go to the A-Z of drugs.
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