‘Special k’ a deadly hit
A BLACK MARKET version of the anaesthetic ketamine, otherwise known as ‘k’, ‘special k’ or ‘horse tranc’, is becoming a drug of choice at music festivals and clubs, with some people mistakenly believing it is safer to take than other drugs because it is used medically.
Emergency department director at Sydney’s St Vincent’s hospital Paul Preisz said treating ketamine users who had overdosed or injured themselves on the “stupefying drug” was becoming “a regular thing”.
“People are jumping off things, people attack each other, people get into difficult sexual situations … what might happen to someone who takes ketamine is a real gamble,” he said.
Typically snorted like cocaine, new research shows nine per cent of music festival goers use illicit ketamine.
It is also popular with nightclub goers.
Manager of The Cabin rehab clinic Josh Rosenthal said he had seen a resurgence of K’s popularity at the Sydney facility, with many clients using ‘k’ as part of a raging sex addiction.
Ketamine was also used to come down off ice.
“A lot of people have experienced the k-hole, where they basically lose the ability to move … it’s very scary stuff,” he said.
Ketamine is popular among music festival goers and nightclubbers because of its psychedelic effects, which some people believed enhanced the party atmosphere or festival vibe.
A ‘dissociative anaesthetic’, ketamine has been used by vets and doctors in medical procedures for many years but is unpredictable and can be toxic in high doses. Australian Border Force said it had made nearly 1500 illicit ketamine detections in the past two
years.
Australian Alcohol and Drug Foundation spokeswoman Laura Bajurny said an as-yet unpublished National Drug Research Institute study had examined the drug use of 2000 music festival goers in Victoria and Western Australia in 2016 and found ketamine was increasingly popular.
She added it was possible young people mistakenly believed that because ketamine was a pharmaceutical drug it was safer than other drugs and that black market ketamine was of pharmaceutical quality. But, like other illicit drugs, ketamine can be cut with dangerous substances.