Kicks from horse tranquiliser

Recreational use of the horse tranquilliser known as ketamine is on the rise among young people. It is a powerful general anaesthetic which is used in veterinary practice, but which also (even according to the Oxford Dictionary of English) is used “illicitly as a hallucinogen”.

Ketamine first crossed the radar of Detective Sergeant (Det Sgt) Brian Roberts from the Garda National Drug Unit in 2008.

“What we see in terms of ketamine is anecdotally a suggestion that there is a significant prevalence of it in the country in powder form. People will always say it’s horse tranquilliser – that’s a common phrase – but it’s used in paediatrics in every hospital in the country and in liquid form.”

“Street” ketamine is usually a grainy, white powder but sometimes it comes in tablet form. When the ketamine that comes in a liquid vial (for use in medicine) is placed on to a frying pan, it turns into powder.

“What you have is synthetic drug production in China and in the Netherlands supplying the EU market with illicit ketamine, and this is really aimed at the recreational drug scene,” says Det Sgt Roberts.

Detection is hard

Despite its prevalence here, the seizures of ketamine in Ireland are very low. According to CSO data sourced from the forensic science lab in the Department of Justice and Equality, 2011 saw the biggest seizure of ketamine between 2008 and 2013 – and that was just 90g of powder in 18 seizures.

“I share your surprise that there has been no major seizures of ketamine in terms of kilo quantities,” says Roberts, but he proffers some explanations as to why this is the case: “When we look at drugs like... GHB, it comes in liquid form... and it’s imported as alloy wheel cleaner or as floor cleaner, so detecting those drugs is very difficult. This is because, first of all, when they come through the port they’re in liquid form, they’re labelled as something else, and they have legitimate use in industry – as ketamine does.”

Another reason it’s not being seized is that while MDMA and other stimulant drugs like cocaine are used for recreational purposes and more openly at music festivals and in pubs and clubs, ketamine is very much an indoor drug because of its effects.

“When somebody buys a bag of ketamine, it has a more crystalline appearance than cocaine or amphetamine,” explains Det Sgt Roberts. “It’s like small granulated sugar and the first thing they’ll do is crush it with the bottom of a glass and make it more fine and then do bumps of it – a bump being on a key or on a coin in a much smaller amount.”

Ketamine can cause hallucinations and it can give users a floating or detached feeling as if the mind and body have separated (with some people feeling incapable of moving).

This has been compared to having a near-death experience, and is colloquially called “entering the K-hole”.

Roberts explains that when users go into a K-hole “they have a visual and audio misperception, but particularly visual... and they won’t have the ability to put a sentence together”.

He adds: “The effect of the drug makes their cognitive process slow down dramatically and they are unable to perform what would normally be easy tasks. Because of this tranquilliser affect, if you like, the drug is never misused out in public or at festivals, so that might give some reason as to why it’s not seized on the street as much.”

In terms of the dangers posed by ketamine, the Det Sgt notes: “It creates a situation where somebody would be more likely to have an instance of trauma. For example, somebody could easily fall and hit their head or have an accident... because people lose their ability to properly control themselves. It’s interesting in terms of ketamine, and equally with drugs like GHB for example... even though GHB is a very toxic substance (it’s a solvent in nail varnish remover) but the drug-related deaths aren’t actually from the toxicity of the substance but from people drowning on their own vomit etc.”

Bladder problems

According to UK anti-drugs website Talk to Frank, a particular problem linked to ketamine is very serious bladder problems in regular users. Incontinence may develop and sometimes the damage is so bad that the bladder has to be removed by surgery. Ketamine also increases heart rate and blood pressure, it can cause damage to memory and regular use is sometimes associated with the development of depression.

Although there have been over 600 drugs-related deaths per year in Ireland in recent years, the Health Research Board says ketamine hasn’t come to light in their drug-related death figures and it hasn’t appeared in their treatment figures. The CSO says ketamine was not entered on any death certificates between 2007 and 2012.

In relation to its prevalence as a factor in hospital admissions, the hospital in-patient enquiry (HIPE) said data for ketamine is not readily available because it’s included in the anaesthetics category and we’re told this data cannot be isolated.

In the last six months there has been a “drought” of ketamine.

“It comes and goes because it’s a popular drug,” says Det Sgt Roberts. “The end user now has the option of going online and going on the darknet and ordering ketamine – from the Netherlands from the UK or, indeed, anywhere in the world – from the safety of their bedroom and their laptop. This is the modern era of drug-dealing.

“It’s a drug that is popular among certain groups. When I say certain groups, some people like it (the effect that they’re not in control) and some people don’t like it, whereas you don’t get that really with the likes of MDMA, for example, which is broadly popular. My prediction is that we’re going to see more ketamine being seized as young people start to experiment with different psychoactive substances in the future,” concludes Roberts.