page_title: Ketamine
section_title: Nonmedical use
hierarchical_section_title: Ketamine / History / Nonmedical use
caption_attribution_description: Just Say Neigh
context_page_description: Ketamine is a medication mainly used for starting and maintaining anesthesia. It induces a trance-like state while providing pain relief, sedation, and memory loss. Other uses include sedation in intensive care and treatment of pain and depression. Heart function, breathing, and airway reflexes generally remain functional. Effects typically begin within five minutes when given by injection, and last up to approximately 25 minutes.
  Common side effects include agitation, confusion, or hallucinations as the medication wears off. Elevated blood pressure and muscle tremors are relatively common. Spasms of the larynx may rarely occur. Ketamine is an NMDA receptor antagonist, but it may also have other actions.
  Ketamine was discovered in 1962, first tested in humans in 1964, and approved for use in the United States in 1970. It was extensively used for surgical anesthesia in the Vietnam War due to its safety. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. It is available as a generic medication. Ketamine is also used as a recreational drug for its hallucinogenic and dissociative effects.
context_section_description: Nonmedical use of ketamine began on the West Coast of the United States in the early 1970s. Early use was documented in underground literature such as The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. It was used in psychiatric and other academic research through the 1970s, culminating in 1978 with the publishing of psychonaut John Lilly's The Scientist, and Marcia Moore and Howard Alltounian's Journeys into the Bright World, which documented the unusual phenomenology of ketamine intoxication. The incidence of nonmedical ketamine use increased through the end of the century, especially in the context of raves and other parties. However, its emergence as a club drug differs from other club drugs (e.g., MDMA) due to its anesthetic properties (e.g., slurred speech, immobilization) at higher doses; in addition, there are reports of ketamine being sold as "ecstasy". The use of ketamine as part of a "postclubbing experience" has also been documented. Ketamine's rise in the dance culture was rapid in Hong Kong by the end of the 1990s. Before becoming a federally controlled substance in the United States in 1999, ketamine was available as diverted pharmaceutical preparations and as a pure powder sold in bulk quantities from domestic chemical supply companies. Much of the current ketamine diverted for nonmedical use originates in China and India.
  Some states in the USA allow paramedics to administer ketamine by intramuscular injection at the request of police officers to subdue suspects they consider are suffering from excited delirium. The ability of paramedics or police officers to diagnose this disputed condition is controversial.
caption: "Just Say Neigh" T-shirts making reference to ketamine became popular in the late 2000s, parodying the Just Say No campaign and ketamine's reputation as a drug for horses.[158]
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D300", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "QuickTime 7.7", "Image DateTime": "2012:09:02 00:40:38", "Image Artist": "", "Image HostComputer": "Mac OS X 10.5.8", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "Steven J Lilley (sk8geek)", "Image ExifOffset": "384", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "32544", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "32668", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3757", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "1600", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:09:01 14:33:51", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:09:01 14:33:51", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-1/3", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "8/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, compulsory flash mode, return light detected", "EXIF FocalLength": "85", "EXIF SubSecTime": "59", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "59", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "59", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4288", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2848", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "127", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}