You reckon you’re a K know it all? A specialist when it comes to Special K? Buckle up, kets and kittens, it’s time to test your knowledge about ketamine.
1) Ketamine is a…
A) Stimulant
B) Psychedelic
C) Disassociative
D) Great time, amirite??
2) What class drug is Ketamine?
A) A
B) B
C) C
D) Upper-middle
3) Outside of partying, what is ketamine most commonly used for?
A) Anaesthetic
B) Treatment of depression and/or anxiety
C) Pain relief
D) Detection of bladder problems
4) What is ketamine’s common dose if you’re snorting it?
A) 10-30mg
B) 30-75mg
C) 30-75g
D) Idk whatever fits in my lil’ spoon
5) How many ways can you take ketamine?
A) 1: Snorting only
B) 2: Snorting and oral/sublingual
C) 3: Snorting, oral/sublingual, and injection
D) 4: Snorting, oral/sublingual, injection, and rectal
6) What are the common risks associated with ketamine?
A) K-holing
B) Breathing difficulties
C) Urinary tract problems
D) All of the above
7) Wait, why is a k-hole risky?
A) Because you can lose the ability to move or speak
B) Because you can vomit while unable to move
C) Because it can cause anxiety and paranoia
D) All of the above
8) Is ketamine being used by medical professionals in Aotearoa to help with anxiety/depression?
A) Yes, but you need a referral from your GP/psychiatrist and it’s crazy expensive
B) Yes, and it’s covered by public health subsidies
C) No, but it should be
D) No, because drugs are bad, mmmkay?
9) If you’re injecting ketamine, which is the least-risky way to do it?
A) Fresh, sterile needle and syringe, with sterile distilled water, into a vein at the elbow
B) Fresh, sterile needle and syringe, with sterile distilled water into the thiccest bit of the outside thigh or shoulder muscle
C) Clean needle and syringe, with boiled water into the skin under your tongue
D) Syringe and needle that were probably clean at some point in the not too distant past, with rain water from a puddle, into the closest bit of flesh you can reach
10) What do the R and S mean when people talk about ketamine isomers?
A) Racine and Saline
B) Rapid and Slow
C) Right and Left
D) Raspberry and Strawberry
11) You can get esketamine on the illicit market in Aotearoa, true or false
A) True
B) False
C) Maybe
D) My dealer says yes but they’re suss as f
12) Rhino ket (2-fluoro deschloroketamine) is stronger than normal ketamine, true or false
A) True, it knocks you on your arse with one bump
B) True, but only a little bit stronger and not enough to notice
C) False, it feels stronger because it stays in your system longer, so if you bump like you do regular ketamine you effectively increase your dose
D) False, it feels stronger if you’re hyped up for it, so the effect is psychosomatic
Bonus question:
13) The street name for 2-fluoro deschloroketamine is:
A) Rhino ket, because vets use it to tranquilise rhinos
B) Rhino ket, because dealers thought the name sounded really cool
C) “To fuck a duck”
D) It hasn’t got one
Answers
1) C. Like most anaesthetics, ketamine is classed as a dissociative (Psychonaut Wiki)
2) Class C (Legislation.govt.nz)
3) A. Anaesthetic, mainly for cases where the surgeon doesn’t need the muscles to be relaxed, like setting a broken bone (Wikipedia)
4) B. 30-75mg (Psychonaut Wiki)
5) D: Snorting, oral/SL, injection, and rectal (Talk with Frank, Reddit anecdata)
6) D: All of the above. While ketamine can help stimulate breathing at small doses, larger doses can result in your breathing shutting down (Europe PMC), and ketamine cystitis is something that occurs if you take ketamine regularly over an extended period of time (KnowYourStuffNZ)
7) D. All of the above (High Alert)
8) A. We have one privately-run clinic in Aotearoa that offers ketamine and esketamine-assisted therapy (Neurotherapies Mood Disorder & Anxiety Clinic). You need a referral from your GP or psychiatrist, and will have to go through an ECG and other screening tests for assessment though.
9) B. Fresh, sterile needle and syringe into the muscle. Intravenous injection with sterile gear is also low risk, but the dose if you’re injecting IV is particularly sensitive, and you can accidentally get into high to dangerous dose levels (Journal of Urban Health)
10) C. Right and left. The Latin word for left is ‘Sinister’, which is where the S comes from (Reset Ketamine)
11) B. False. While esketamine is definitely in the country and available under a very restricted prescription, it has yet to make it to the illicit market. Ketamine bought on the illicit market is racemic, as this is what is widely used in hospitals and vet clinics (Frontiers in Psychiatry, Paediatric Anaesthesia)
12) C. 2-Fluorodeschloroketamine’s peak is almost twice that as ketamine’s, so if you bump it in the same time frame that you would regular ketamine, you’re building up the amount of ketamine in your body (Psychonaut Wiki – ketamine, Psychonaut Wiki – 2-Fluorodeschloroketamine)
13) B. “Rhino ket” sounds kind of cool. But it’s not a common name so you get half a point for D.