Posted by tessellated on December 1, 2006, at 2:56:32
In reply to Re: Ketamine study - is anything gona come of this » Quintal, posted by zmg on November 29, 2006, at 23:54:11
people, people, people,
ketamine is the vetrinarians anesthic of preference, over, narcotics, bartituates, because it does not typicaly have significant affects on life signs like respiration, heart rate, or blood pressure, in this way its very unique.it has a wide therapuetic window, meaning that to knock an mammal out, you can pretty much eyeball it rather than requiring an anesthesiologist and sophisticated monitoring of life signs and antidotes on hand. And its short acting. Ever have dog surgery when they stumble around for days? Phenobarbital (common for rats) is slow to metabolize, and hard to find proper dosage without killing the animal, similarly for scopalomine, and most sedatives. For vet surgery its a wonderdrug-easy and safe to admin. often used just for dental cleaning. I think the UK finally just upped the schedule, making ALL animal surgery potentially life threatening because all the alternatives alter heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration, if not all three, for extended periods.
A k-hole is merely when the person ingests enough, and is no longer in volitional control of their muscles, and may experience an "out of body", or "near death" archetypal experience. As a party drug, ketamine, much like GHB, the LD (lethal death) dose and the therapeutic window are quite far apart. However any drug that makes one unconscious in public simply by doubling a dose, probably should be controlled, as it costs the individuals thousands of dollars of medical bills, scares the hell out of them, their friends, puts them in jeopary, and can ruin any party.
People can kill themselves by taking tylenol a lot easier than with either of these "rave drugs". Its not the drug, its the fact that kids do stupid things to themselves and others on all drugs particularly alchohol.
As far as all of the hallucinogens go, IMHO, ketamine is the most selective, insightful, and safe option going. ou can also mix it pretty safely with other meds, so when EMT's suspect other meds in someones system, ketamine will be used due to the fact it has some of the lowest psysiological side effects. Its used for children, burn victims, soldiers, wherever depressed respiration rules out narcotics. For those of you out there on MAOI's. Ketamine can be a life saver, as there are no interactions, as it operates on a completely different mechanism, and its not synergistic. So its one of the few MAOI safe, fast acting, anethetics, available.
Problem is yeah it alters consciousness.
And "ravers" do dumb sh*t like sniff, smoke, or ingest waay too much to stand let alone talk, drive, or go to denny's. Personally, I've had my exhausting 2 decades of psychonautic adventures, and wouldn't give anyone anyone hallucinogens anymore except for ketamine, because at a solid dose all they do is lie down and shut up, and about an hour later want to talk about life/death/consciousness quantum dimensions, time, and the body. None of this bolting out the door, jumping in a car, etc, locking themselves inside bathrooms, getting lost in the woods, etc..
Ketamine is also far more selective on aspects of consciousness. Rather than say with the tryptamines like acid, shrooms, etc where you really gotta baby sit the user sometimes physically, ketamine is a tranquillizer. More intriguingly, it seems to alter the perception of time, the body, and sound more speficically, as well as at higher doses imagery-consciousness feels very hmmm "quantum", it's not dominated by the fear of ego dissolution, rather by the fear of the loss of body. Its less neurotoxic than X, and I think could be highly therapuetic for PTSD patients and the like. Helped me wondrously process my first parents death. And weirdly does produce at higher doses near death experiences; leaving the body, white lights, conversations with loved ones live and dead, life flashing by, acceptance of loss, awareness of continuity, and leaves one as most near death experiences do with a renewed vigor for the simple things in life. Almost dying is a great anti depressant.I guess the stupid part is, is that as a pain killer (dissociative) below catatonia, when dancing is great, it could let a user punch through walls, break bones, etc without feeling pain, just about like alhohol.
Regardless, in my mind it's one of the most safe, illuminating, and therapueticallly beneficial psychedelics out there, particularly for dealing with depression accompanying bereavement, heartbreak, impermanence, and loss.
poster:tessellated
thread:707431
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061129/msgs/709244.html