Title: 
KETAMINE

Word Count:
215

Summary:
Ketamine is a drug for use in human and veterinary medicine developed by Parke-Davis (today a part of Pfizer) in 1962.  Ketamine is used to manage pain among large animals, though it has less effect on bovines.


Keywords:
drugs, ketamine,addiction


Article Body:
Ketamine is a drug for use in human and veterinary medicine developed by Parke-Davis (today a part of Pfizer) in 1962.  Ketamine is used to manage pain among large animals, though it has less effect on bovines.  Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic developed in 1963 to replace PCP and currently used in human anesthesia and veterinary medicine.  Ketamine is relatively safe when used in hospitals.  Ketamine is often used at all-night dance parties (raves), nightclubs, and concerts.  Ketamine is a liquid, but most users let it evaporate into a white powder, then snort it.  Ketamine is an anaesthetic that is available only to physicians and is "scheduled" in several states.  Ketamine is known to cause hallucinations, nausea, mental clouding, loss of memory and an amnestic feeling may occur.  Ketamine is unusual among injectable drugs since it is injected both intravenously and intramuscularly.  Ketamine is a depressant at higher doses and can dangerously reduce heart rate and respiratory function.  Now that Ketamine is federally illegal, it is expected that most states will also eventually schedule it.  The majority of fatalities occur when ketamine is combined with other CNS depressants like alcohol, benzodiazepines and a mixture of other illicit drugs.  The most frequent – and sometimes only way – to obtain ketamine is through the diversion or theft of legal pharmaceuticals.