|
 |
INFORMATION:
Ketamine - Get the Facts
Ketamine – Get the Facts
Ketamine can affect your brain and body. Ketamine is often used at all-night dance parties (“raves”), nightclubs, and concerts. Club drugs, like K, can damage the neurons in your brain, impairing your senses, memory, judgment, and coordination. In most cases, users experience hallucinations and disconnection from everything around them. They can also feel numbness in the hands and feet, and loss of muscle control. People on K can’t talk easily and they feel little or no pain. These sensations can last up to an hour from a single dose, and a great deal longer for higher doses. In rare cases, flashbacks can happen up to a year later.
Ketamine was developed as a tranquilizer, or anesthetic, for veterinarians to use on animals. It was approved for animal and human use in 1970. On occasion, the drug has been used to treat children with major burns… an example of a legal use for this drug. Today, however, there is some illegal use among teens and young adults.
Ketamine’s physical appearance. Ketamine is a liquid, but most users let it evaporate into a white powder, then snort it. If you were to inject it, you’d lose control of your muscles before finishing the injection. Because it’s usually in white powder form, K is often confused with cocaine or crystal. Occasionally people pass it off as ecstasy, or mix it with caffeine.
Ketamine is not always what it seems. Because club drugs, like K, are illegal and often produced in makeshift laboratories, it is impossible to know exactly what chemicals were used to produce them and where they came from. How strong or dangerous any illegal drug is varies each time.
Ketamine can kill you. Higher doses of club drugs, like K, can cause severe breathing problems, coma, or even death.
Before You Risk It
Know the law. It is illegal to buy or sell club drugs, such as K. It is also a federal crime to use any controlled substance to aid in a sexual assault.
Get the facts. Despite what you may have heard, club drugs, like K, can be addictive.
Know the risks. Mixing K and other drugs together or with alcohol is extremely dangerous. The effects of one drug can magnify the effects and risks of another. In fact, mixing substances can be lethal.
Know the Signs
How can you tell if a friend is using club drugs, like K? Sometimes it’s tough to tell. But there are signs you can look for. If your friend has one or more of the following warning signs, he or she may be using club drugs:
- Problems remembering things they recently said or did
- Loss of coordination, dizziness, fainting
- Depression
- Confusion
- Sleep problems
What can you do to help someone who is using club drugs, like K? Be a real friend. Save a life. Encourage your friend to stop or seek professional help. For information and referrals, call the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information at 800-729-6686.
Q&A
Q. If you were in a club and somebody slipped a club drug, like K, into your drink, wouldn’t you realize it immediately?
A. Probably not. Most club drugs are odorless and tasteless. Some are made into a powder form that makes it easier to slip into a drink and dissolve without a person’s knowledge. That is why some of these drugs have been called “date rape” drugs—because there have been increasing reports of club drugs being used in sexual assaults.
The bottom line: If you know someone who uses K, urge him or her to get help. If you’re using it—stop! The longer you ignore the real facts, the more chances you take with your life.
Show them you care !
 |
||||
|
|
|
|
|
Topics
Alcohol Awareness
-
Vcards
Information
Campus & Personal Safety
- Vcards
Information
Campus Organizations
- Vcards
Information
High Risk Drinking
- Vcards
Information
Nicotine Addiction
- Vcards
Information
Student Created Videos
- Vcards
Information
Student Health
- Vcards
Information
Substance Abuse
- Vcards
Information
Underage Drinking
- Vcards
Information
