The rise and fall and rise of ketamine

Today, as well as making a return to the festival fields and dancefloors and sofas of the UK, ketamine is being used as a new category of anti-depressant, or in the treatment of post traumatic stress disorder. It has been proposed as a tool to treat alcoholics, and recently it was reported that the drug helped one child from Glasgow, Romi Löffler, who suffers from the rare and debilitating Rett Syndrome, recover the power of speech after years of being unable to talk. There are labs in New York and elsewhere in the US where patients can be attached to a drip of the drug in a bid to treat depression and chronic pain.

For my book, Drugs 2.0, I interviewed a man who had phantom limb pain in an amputated limb, which he self-medicated using ketamine for years. He ended up inventing a legal version of ketamine, methoxetamine, that is still sought out by psychonauts worldwide since it is now banned.

And all over the dark web, Chinese-synthed ketamine, now in huge crystals and rocky chunks, or shining tiny shards, are changing hands for about £20-30 a gram, though stocks seem to sell out in moments. Purity is said to be high.

It’s worth noting, in conclusion, that ketamine is a seductively addictive substance. People under its influence have little to no control over their bodies, and can face harms such as road traffic accidents, drowning (baths and ketamine do not mix) or serious falls.

What’s more, repeated use will have you urinating blood that feels like it is laced with a million tiny razor blades – when you’re straight, as ketamine damages bladders like few other chemicals. Sufferers have reported that the only cure for their malady is, grimly, more ketamine. Serious abusers have ended up with their bladders removed, replaced with a bag and tube system.

Expert users and open-minded medics agree: whatever your poison, but perhaps with ketamine above all other recreational substances, take care of yourself, and your friends.

Mike Power is the author of Drugs 2.0 and a regular contributor to Mixmag. Follow him on Twitter

Sam Taylor is a freelance illustrator. Follow him on Instagram