Why is it so hard to find ketamine?

[TheBlackPirate]

^Presumably this is coincidence. My understanding is most of the ketamine available is diverted from legal operations mass producing the drug in places with lax regulations. Most of the LSD produced now comes from an individual illicit operation producing planetary scale batches. Most recently I heard the lab rotates between rural Indian cities. They stopped producing LSD in developed countries with the Pickard bust because of the same reasons the cartels make meth in Mexico now, the cost of doing business is cheaper there.

 

[HeadphonesandLSD]

It's just the way things go man.

15 years ago I could rarely find LSD (it was right after the big bust) and now it's everywhere. Back in those days K was easy to find even in my bumfuck middle of nowhere town, now I can't even find MXE sold as K. It'll come around again, if there is a taste for something in the general population eventually someone will fill the gap.

What gets to me is I never tried K when it was widely available here. I love some MXE so I'm sure I'd enjoy K too. I've asked around and so far no luck, although I haven't been looking as actively since the start of the year and haven't been going out hardly at all. I'm sure it's around it just isn't flowing like water. My friend went to a local festival a couple of years ago and there was plenty if you knew the right people, wish I would have gone.

The worse part is I've been entrusted with the key to one of the local vet offices. I have a family member that works there...if I wasn't an upstanding citizen I would have taken a vial from there by now.

 

[Ismene]

Most recently I heard the lab rotates between rural Indian cities.

Manufactured by who? Indian chemists? Or do you mean white chemists are moving between rural indian cities setting up labs with massive amounts of specialised equipment - which would obviously attract local and police attention. Also going to be incredibly difficult getting the raw materials to such places.

Hard to believe there's many indian chemists capable of creating LSD - Al-lad was beyond Indian capabilities and was manufactured in Europe.

because of the same reasons the cartels make meth in Mexico now, the cost of doing business is cheaper there.

Why would the "cost of business" be cheaper if you're doing something illegal? As far I can see the main costs of buisness will be the raw materials - which will be the same price regardless of where your lab is - and finding a reliable chemist.

 

[rbbohio]

I last did K in 2002 when I lived in Orlando... It was readily available, and I was friends with other K users and dealers, so very easy to obtain.. It was my DOC... I move back to SE Ohio in December of 2002, and I ask about it, and people had no clue what it was, well most, and the few that did said you can't find it here... It is very rural, hill country... No clubs/ raves/ festivals that would bring in demand for it... I then come to realize, around here you drink, smoke weed, maybe coke, and prescription meds are the norm... Very hard to even find MDMA, and when ya did, it was expensive, and weak... So I have given up hope of doing K w/ Ecstacy a long time ago... Oh how I have missed it... And nothing has really changed since 2003... Still no demand for it around here... Idk if Columbus, Cincy, Cleveland has shortage or if it is available or not, and doesn't matter as I know noone in those circles, or anyone period!! So at least I have the memories of K-hole bliss!!

 

[Hodor]

Apparently K has become much more popular in China over the years, especially among businessmen who do it when they're "networking" (think 1960's Mad Men style). The Chinese authorities have since cracked down harder and harder on the illegal sale and manufacture of the drug, to the point where they even appealed to the United Nations to make it a Controlled Substance under the UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances (luckily they were unsuccessful, as ketamine's uncontrolled status means it is often the only available anaesthetic/painkiller in some of Africa's poorer regions, where clinics cannot afford to comply with international regulations, or deal with the exorbitant cost of jumping through bureaucratic hoops given the amount of corruption going on)

 

[HeadphonesandLSD]

Apparently K has become much more popular in China over the years, especially among businessmen who do it when they're "networking" (think 1960's Mad Men style). The Chinese authorities have since cracked down harder and harder on the illegal sale and manufacture of the drug, to the point where they even appealed to the United Nations to make it a Controlled Substance under the UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances (luckily they were unsuccessful, as ketamine's uncontrolled status means it is often the only available anaesthetic/painkiller in some of Africa's poorer regions, where clinics cannot afford to comply with international regulations, or deal with the exorbitant cost of jumping through bureaucratic hoops given the amount of corruption going on)

The popularity of K seems to be increasing everywhere. It seems a new generation of users have discovered it and the demand is going up. I have no idea if less is floating around now but it seems to be pretty common at the festivals I go to. You do have to know people of course and you're taking a chance on getting MXE or another RC. A new user might assume it's K because they've never seen K before.

This is getting close to sourcing but...what the user described above about rural life is true. Alcohol, weed, and prescription meds is about all you find. For the other stuff you have to seek it out and actually go to the festivals and clubs. The days of just finding it locally seem to over for now.

 

[Burnt Offerings]

There's a lot of heroin and meth in rural areas, too, as far as "street drugs" go. Heroin, meth, weed, pills...as far as psychedelics go, just acid and mushrooms although sometimes something a bit more "exotic" floats through on a temporary basis...other than that, yeah. I've never seen ketamine in my entire life, or even met someone who has taken it. (Have done MXE though)

 

[HeadphonesandLSD]

There's a lot of heroin and meth in rural areas, too, as far as "street drugs" go.

Yea heroin has really taken off in my area. Over the last 15 years pain pills became very popular and harder to find (plus the price is insane now). A lot of people are making the jump because you can always get H, where pills only come in during certain times of the month, cost more, and are a pain in the ass to get (shady dealers, lots of shady people coming to score). Most people get started with the intention of only using it when the pills aren't around but eventually they go full on H. I had to run one friend off because he got so strung out on it and was constantly trying to bully me and another friend out of money. I threw him out like jazz on the fresh prince. Hated to do it because I've been in the same place but I don't need people like that in my life right now. If I hang out with them on the regular I'll slip back into using.

I don't see much meth but it's around for sure, every now and then I'll run up on people smoking it. I don't use it myself but I've been offered it plenty of times. I just don't want to get started with another drug after my addiction to pain killers. I learned my lesson with those.