Special K

Ketamine hydrochloride, or "Special K," is a short-acting general anesthetic and a powerful hallucinogen widely used as an animal tranquilizer by veterinarians. Ketamine belongs to a class of drugs called "dissociative anesthetics," which separate perception from sensation.

Liquid Ketamine was developed in the early 1960s as an anesthetic for surgeries, and was used on the battlefields of Vietnam as an anesthetic. Powdered Ketamine emerged as a recreational drug in the 1970s, and was known as "Vitamin K" in the 1980s. It resurfaced in the 1990s rave scene as "Special K."

Ketamine usually comes as a liquid in small pharmaceutical bottles, and is most often cooked into a white powder. Ketamine liquid can be injected, applied to smokable material, or consumed in drinks. The powdered form looks similar to cocaine and can be put into drinks, smoked, snorted or dissolved and then injected. The drug is sometimes sprinkled on tobacco or marijuana and smoked. Special K is frequently used in combination with other drugs, such as ecstasy, heroin or cocaine. Ketamine is odorless and tasteless, so it can be added to beverages without being detected, and it induces amnesia. Because of these properties, the drug is often used as a “date rape” drug.

Some people describe a speedy rush within a few minutes of sniffing the powder (20 minutes if taken as a pill, quicker if injected), leading to powerful hallucinations that include visual distortions and a lost sense of time, sense, and identity. The high can last from a half-hour to 2 hours. Ketamine produces physical effects similar to PCP, with the visual effects of LSD. Users report that it is better than PCP or LSD because the trip lasts an hour or less. Low doses of the drug results in impaired attention, learning ability and memory. Higher doses produce an effect referred to as “K-Hole,” an “out of body,” or “near-death” experience. Due to its dissociative effect, it is reportedly used as a date-rape drug. In high doses, ketamine can cause delirium, amnesia, impaired motor function, high blood pressure, depression, and potentially fatal respiratory problems.