• Psychedelic Drugs Welcome Guest
    View threads about
    Posting RulesBluelight Rules
    PD's Best Threads Index
    Social ThreadSupport Bluelight
    Psychedelic Beginner's FAQ

Ketamine Dangers

PuristLove

Bluelighter
Joined
Dec 11, 2000
Messages
1,694
Because there has been a lot of debate over the various dangers associated with ketamine I have done some research and would like to share what I have found. Ketamine is not the deadly drug the media has portrayed it to be, but neither is it entirely innocent. Various traps and pitfalls await the uninformed and careless user and I'll attempt to unveil these for you.


Dependency
Unlike most other psychedelics drugs, ketamine can produce an uncomfortable dependency.

The ketamine experience often gives the user a sense of being "on the verge" of discovering enlightenment, contacting an alien race, meeting God, breaking through, etc. Because this feeling can be quite strong, users are often compelled to go back "one more time." This can quickly result in using more in a sitting or more often than intended.

While ketamine is not physically addictive, it does produce similar effects to some of the addictive drugs, notably amphetamines and opiates. Someone using a low dose on a regular basis may quickly find they need it to feel normal.

A ketamine trip can be the ultimate escape; taking one to fantasy landscapes, other dimensions, beyond death, out of the body, or into oblivion. Its easy to see how this could quickly become a problem for someone with escapist/chemically dependant tendencies.

After many uses ketamine begins to exhibit different effects on its users. It may become more physical and less psychedelic, and the user may develop more and more difficulty remembering the experience. This can drive some people to use more often and/or in larger doses.

A few pointers in avoiding dependency: don't buy large quantities, set limits on how often you will use and stick to them, watch for dependant behavior and if you experience it quit using.

Physical Injury
Always use ketamine in the company of a sober person.

Because ketamine is a dissociative it can cause the user to lose control of their body and perform actions that they are unaware of. One can fall over, get up and walk around, fall into water, etc. D.M. Turner, one of ketamine's biggest advocates, drown in his bathtub while on ketamine alone. John Lilly had several incidents on ketamine, one of which involved falling in his swimming pool and having to be resuscitated.

Do not drive on ketamine! (That shouldn't need to be said but I will say it anyways.)

A note about injecting ketamine - Injecting it is much more powerful than snorting it. It comes on quicker and stronger. If you decide to inject, go intramuscularly or subcutaneous. I.V. ketamine can take you by surprise and you may not even have time to remove the needle or remove the tourniquet. This can cause a variety of injury. I.V. ketamine has been known to cause the breathing to stop for up to one minute when administered to small children. This is unusual and shouldn't occur at psychedelic doses but is important to be aware of.


Ketamine and the Brain
Perhaps the most debated of all are the effects ketamine can have on the brain. In its defense, ketamine has been used medically for the last thirty years and is still used to this day.

Dopamine Systems
In psychedelic doses ketamine can act as a stimulant and indirectly affect the dopamine system producing changes similar to those caused by cocaine and amphetamine. It is unknown to what extent it does this, or what effect this may have on the individual.
Theoretically it could make it more difficult to experience pleasure and cause cravings for the drug.

c-Fos Protein
Ketamine triggers genes to produce the protein c-Fos. This protein goes on to signal the activation of other genes and the production and release of other proteins and hormones. It is unknown what effect this has on the individual.

Olney's Lesions
John Olney reported that at a dosage of 40 mg/kg ketamine produced fluid-filled vacoules in the brains of rats. These disappeared in several days; however, when PCP and MK-801 (related chemicals) were given, some permanent cell death/damage occured.

Researchers have been unable to produce Olney Vacuoules in primates or human beings. The brain of primates has a metabolism half the speed of that in rodents. It is plausible that damage is prevented or reduced by this factor. Unfortunately, the studies that have been done have not been published, and nowhere near enough of them have been performed to be conclusive.

Mental Impairment
Many users have reported mental impairment, in a variety of forms, that they believe to be the result of their ketamine use.

This could be caused by a number of issues. Psychological ones, like post traumatic stress syndrome, genetic ones, pre-existing conditions, some function of the c-Fos protein, Olney's Lesions or something undiscovered. It could also be placebo. Currently there is not enough researchto assume ketamine is safe, but at the same time, it isn't a drug to be feared.

If mental impairment is a result of ketamine use then it would be increased by duration, intensity and the number of times used. Play it safe and use moderately. Use the smallest dosage required to gain the effest desired, and use it rarely.


Reccomended further sources of information are:

William White's Essay http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/dxm/dxm_health1.shtml
Ketamine: Dreams and Realities by Karl Jansen M.D. Ph.D. http://www.erowid.org/library/books/ketamine_dreams.shtml

Pure

[Edit: Fixed vB coding after upgrade - Orlando]
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Top