UK - Through the K hole: the dangers of Special K

"So many of my friends have videos of people K-holing. There are literally loads of them on YouTube."

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It is cheap, around £20 for a gram in London, as little as £6 a gram elsewhere, making an evening on K significantly cheaper than going to the pub. Users say that taking it transports them to a profoundly different mental place, far away from earthly concerns. They laugh, hallucinate, fall about. Ketamine gets you high almost immediately, they say, lasts a relatively short amount of time (around two hours) and doesn't give you much of a comedown.

Even among regular drug users, however, ketamine is considered an acquired taste. When you underestimate its effects, or "disrespect the drug", as they say, the results can be harrowing.

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It was classified as a Class C drug in 2006, meaning you can get a two-year prison sentence for possession and up to 14 years for dealing it. However, criminalisation has had little effect.

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The long-term dangers of the drug are only just coming to light. Ketamine can exacerbate depression and cause significant psychological trauma (it has been used to mimic the effects of schizophrenia in clinical trials). It is thought to impair cognitive ability and cause amnesia, which makes its prevalence at universities a source of concern.

It is its effects on bladder function that are most alarming. One long-term user described the irreparable damage to his bladder like this: "I'll go for a piss and it will literally be one tablespoon's worth of urine. I'll piss out slugs of blood, like congealed jelly, and the pain is horrific. It feels like a ball with loads of spikes in it bouncing around your bladder.

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Most of the young people I speak to say they prefer ecstasy or MDMA as a party drug but restrictions to active chemicals and doctoring agents as well as criminal busts have made it harder to come by in recent years. This is a significant factor in the rise of mephedrone (meow meow) and an assortment of untested legal highs as well as ketamine.

Authorities should be aware that by dramatically limiting supply of a drug that is relatively safe, they are pushing young people towards more dangerous alternatives.

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Newbierock said:

I Read an article today in the sun, which mentioned them injecting a horse with a gram and half. Then saying that because the horse was ko'd, this is what happens everytime a human takes it ¬_¬.

Anythings going down if you shoot it with a gram and half of anything!

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K is responsible for dubstep

- Lord Archer, London, 17/11/2011 17:59

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darksidedsam said:

(Comment on that page)

Hahahahaaahaaa

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