Ketamine

• Ketamine is a very powerful anesthetic that can cause serious harm. Taking ketamine can be fatal, particularly if it is mixed with other drugs.
• Ketamine can increase your heart rate and blood pressure. It can make you confused, agitated, delirious and disconnected from reality.
• It can make you feel sick, and it can cause damage to your short- and long-term memory.
• Because of the body’s loss of feelings, paralysis of the muscles and the mind’s loss of touch with reality, you can be left vulnerable to hurting yourself or being hurt by others.
• Because you don't feel pain properly when you've recently taken ketamine, you can injure yourself and not know you've done it.
• Ketamine can cause serious bladder problems, with the urgent and frequent need to pee. This can be very painful and the pee can be blood-stained. Although stopping using ketamine can help, sometimes the damage can be so serious that the bladder needs surgical repair or even removal.
• The urinary tract, from the kidneys down to the bladder, can also be affected and incontinence (uncontrolled peeing) may also develop.
• Abdominal pain, sometimes called ‘K cramps’, have been reported by people who have taken ketamine for a long time.
• Evidence of liver damage due to regular, heavy ketamine use is emerging. The liver has a range of important functions, such as cleaning your blood and removing toxic substances.

• The longer term effects of ketamine use can include flashbacks, memory loss and problems with concentration.
• Regular use can cause depression and, occasionally, psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations. Ketamine can also make existing mental health problems worse.
• Interestingly, medical grade ketamine is now being researched as a potential treatment for severe depression, but it is too early to know the results of this research.

Street ketamine is usually sold as a white/beige crystalised powder and is sometimes cut with other powders to add weight and improve the dealer’s profits.

It’s impossible to tell whether the ketamine you buy has been cut with other substances by looking at it.

• This is a Class B drug, which means it’s illegal to have for yourself, give away or sell.

• Possession can get you up to 5 years in prison, an unlimited fine or both.

• Supplying someone else, even your friends, can get you up to 14 years in prison, an unlimited fine or both.