FAQ: What is ketamine and who is using this animal tranquilizer for fun?

K. Cat Tranquilizer. Special K.

Ketamine goes by many names. It’s a drug developed to help people and pets during surgery, but it commonly turns up on the street for recreational use.

And though it’s popular on the street, it’s still relatively unknown to the wider public.

Here are some of the basics:

What is the intended use: In its commercial form, ketamine is a liquid used mainly as a fast-acting anesthetic in veterinary and some human surgeries.

What does it feel like: The drug is an hallucinogen that also shares characteristics with stimulants and depressants. It can have “dissociative” effects, making a person feel as if her mind is separated from her body.

Users can experience psychedelic hallucinations that may be “intense and terrifying,” according to Health Canada.

Taking ketamine can produce a drunken, dizzy feeling. Sensations of weightlessness and feeling “out-of-body” are possible, which some people describe as going through or being in the “k-hole.”

Writer Brian Moyle describes it this way:

If I remember correctly (and it’s been more than a decade since I’ve done K) it sort of makes you feel like when you wake up in the morning and you can’t tell whether you’re asleep and dreaming or awake.

What does it look like: In its street form, the drug is most often packaged as a white powder. Users snort, smoke, or dissolve the powder in drinks. For medical purposes, the liquid form is most common. It is also available in creams and lozenges.

What are the dangers: 

• If the liquid form is injected in a vein it can cause rapid loss of consciousness.
• Since the drug is odourless and tasteless and easily dissolves in liquid, it has been used as a “date rape” drug.
• The drug can cause temporary paralysis, vomiting, spikes in blood pressure, slowed breathing, and incoherence.
• Taking the drug with alcohol or other sedative-hypnotics can cause heart attacks or respiratory arrest.
• Long-term use can lead to urinary or bladder issues.
• As with all drugs, sharing needles or other tools can put users at risk for HIV or hepatitis B or C.
• An overdose could cause a seizure, coma, or death.

Is it addictive: Not much information exists on the physical or psychological dependence on the drug, but some users do develop a tolerance, according to Health Canada.