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 Health & Beauty | On Addiction | July 2005 
Special K: NOT the Breakast of Champions
 Sueanne Lineberger - PVNN
He is 25 years old, with dyed blond hair, earrings and striking blue eyes.
But those eyes look away now, embarrassed, as he talks about sticking a straw into a bag of "Special K" and snorting a spoonful up his nose.
The Chicago based visitor, who asked that his name not be used, is not talking about a spoonful of half-inch wheat flakes fortified with iron.
He's talking about the drug Ketamine, known on the street as "Special K," or simply "K," an anesthetic drug commonly used by veterinarians while declawing, neutering or spaying cats. This drug can be purchased in Mexico over the counter in Vet offices.
The drug in its original form looks like water and can be injected. But the most popular way to take it is to cook it down into a white powder. Then users snort, swallow or smoke it to achieve a dreamlike state and experience hallucinations similar to the effects of using phencyclidine (PCP), Ketamine's chemical cousin.
"If you're on K, and someone's sawing your arm off, although it will still hurt - you won't care," said visitor. "That describes it exactly."
Ketamine is one of several club drugs, that is popular especially in the gay community. And several people I have spoke with said part of the reason they come to Mexico is for the easy access to it.
Since August, four veterinary hospitals in the metropolitan area have reported break-ins in which vials of Ketamine were stolen. Police suspect the thieves either sell the drug in clubs or use it themselves.
Veterinary offices across the United States have been reporting break-ins since 1997. Three years ago, the American Veterinary Medical Association encouraged its members to install burglar alarms and keep all drugs locked away after a rash of Ketamine thefts.
Although Ketamine is thought of as a relatively new drug, it is older than most of its users realize. The drug was developed at the University of Michigan in 1965 as a safer anesthesia for human surgeries. At moderate doses, it does not affect breathing or the circulatory system.
The drug quickly found use on the battlefields of Vietnam as an anesthesia that soldiers could carry in their packs to relieve pain from severe wounds. But just as quickly, human patients began reporting short-term hallucinations as the drug wore off.
Some users reported having astral projections of their bodies, previewing their own deaths, even talking with God. Ketamine is still in use today as an anesthetic for the elderly, for severe burn victims and for the very young, but physicians combine it with another drug to suppress its hallucinogenic effect. |
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