It had been a house party just like any other. It was around 6 and things were starting to wind down and, as had recently become the norm for this stage in the night’s proceedings, there was lots of Ket going round. Everyone was just doing their own thing and having a laugh until we noticed that one of our party wasn’t moving a whole lot and had cut his arm several times with shards from a nearby broken vase. As we tried to wake him from his ‘sleep’ we noticed that he wasn’t alone in his curiously unresponsive slumber: another of our friends was on the floor open-mouthed and staring unblinklingly at the ceiling. We realised things had gone waaaay wrong and rang an ambulance. Turned out they’d both OD’ed on Ket. Or rather, as was pointed out at the hospital, Ket cut with a cocktail of smack and GHB. One of them was so far gone that his heart had stopped beating and his parents had to be called by the nurses in case they died. All in all it was some pretty bad shit. But apparently not bad enough to stop two particularly nihilistic partygoers hoovering up the dregs from the bag – despite having seen two of their best friends carted out in an ambulance. Nor was it bad enough to prevent either of those who were hospitalised from doing Ketamine again within a matter of weeks. That not even a dance with death was sufficient to stop them doing K again either says a lot about my friends or about the all-conquering nature of the drug. Probably a bit of both, but either way it’s impossible to deny the rising prominence of this powdery horse tranquiliser over the last few years. Regular Ketamine use has increased fourfold since 2000 with an estimated 100,000 people now using it in the UK, with the drug already more widely used in some parts of the country than ecstasy.

OK so Ket’s nothing new – it has, infact, been around since the sixties. It’s not even strictly a horse tranquiliser either (despite what you may have heard or read it’s still frequently used in human medicine and always has been) but, after years of intermittent popularity in London’s squat and gay scenes, it’s exploded big time into the mainstream and its momentum is showing little sign of waning.

For the uninitiated, Ket is a tranquiliser known for its properties as disassociative anaesthetic. What that means in real terms is that in small doses it makes you feel like you’re incandescently floating in the air while trying to run in a swimming pool with your limbs on back to front. In bigger doses it’s liable to render you incapacitated, seeing and hearing all kinds of weird psychedelic shit and generally tripping out (this is the state that people are referring to when they’re talking about ‘going into a K-Hole’).

What makes Ketamine so different from so many other so-called ‘recreational drugs’ is the relative ease in which you can regulate your usage (if you know what you’re doing). Ketamine is a particularly modern drug in the sense that the short term effects of small doses can be regularly topped up on a ‘pay as you go’ basis. Generally in the context of clubs and public social situations people moderate their consumption by doing it in small ‘bumps’ (very small lines of around 30-50g which produce mild effects and last a short period of time) rather than in full lines, the strength and incapacitating nature of which can all too easily knock you sideways and, before you know it, have you chatting fraff, dribbling all over your friends and bussin’ out the 1bpm zombie skank inna corner by yourself. Not a good look.
Harry Shapiro, Director of Communications at Drugs organisation Drugscope explains the effects of these dosage variants in slightly more scientific terms: ‘At low dosage levels (around 100mg), the user will feel euphoric and experience rushes or waves of energy. At higher doses (200mg and over) the user will often experience hallucinations similar to LSD and the typical ‘out of body’ experience’.

But why Ketamine and why now? Well, for starters, a lack of anything else about. Whilst Nu Rave – unlike ‘old Rave’ – was never initially about taking drugs, the moment its influence hit the mainstream coincided with the quality of pills and availability of MDMA starting to decline, and with them the nation’s dancefloors suddenly began to wobble beneath the cumulative weight of a generation’s worth of Hi-Tops. With the usual stimulants not so readily available the club kids began experimenting with more underground sedative drugs like Ket (previously perceived by the very same people as something of wasteman’s drug) and, to a far lesser extent, GHB, in order to get their chemical kicks.
Such a drastic shift in narcotic consumption meant changes in the cultural landscape were inevitable, and following Nu Rave came increasingly dark scenes which mirror both the drugs and, in a broader sense, the times in which we live – starting with Nu Grave and culminating in the birth of the Darkwave era which we inhabit now.

Jack, a 21 year old from Kent explained to me how Ket has come to be the recreational drug of choice amongst his peer group: “Everyone is over their MDMA honeymoon now and would prefer to do a few lines (of Ketamine) and pop out, rather than drop a couple of bombs (ecstasy pills) and spend all night with a horrible gurn, nursing chapped lips, chewed-to-fuck mouths, and brains that feel like they’ve been emptied of any useful content the next day. I guess Ketamine’s sudden availability – in Kent at least – over the past year has also had a part to play. It certainly does seem to be the new drug du jour, everyone seems to be doing it all of a sudden, even kids. At Reading Festival my local K dealer was 14!”

Seeking a sensory synchronicity with their adopted drug of choice many new Ketamine users have turned to slower, sparser musical forms (to better suit the sedative, spaceshifting effects of Ket) in order to get their groove on. Dubstep had already become the soundtrack of choice in the squat party scene and it wasn’t long before Ket had replaced spliffs as the biggest thing in the genre since half-time beats and wobble basslines. The influence quickly spread from the squat parties to the DJs, to the records, to the clubs, with many Ketamine advocates within the genre likening the drug’s impact on the music to that of ecstasy on the late eighties club scene: “It seems that people have suddenly woken up to the amazing synchronicity between dubstep and Ketamine, which I guess was totally unintentional on the part of dubstep’s originators”, writes one dubstep forum user. “K and dubstep were born for one another, just like ecstasy and acid house... watching dubstep’s sudden boom in squat raves has really reminded me of the lightbulb that went on over people’s heads in 88-92 when they first took Es to house music.”
The issue of Ketamine in dubstep has been hotly contested across the scene’s blogs and forums, and there are many unhappy ravers who want the swaying ket-zombies to get the fuck out of their way and let them get their skank on. Nonetheless, the omnipotent presence of Ket in Dubstep at the moment marks a massive turnaround for a movement that once prided itself on its music-centric vibe; as forum user Bootystep puts it “I remember a time when I could say to people ‘dubstep isn’t about drugs, it’s about the music’, but to the masses this has clearly changed.”

For many others taking Ket is simply part of the more one dimensional British tradition of getting wrecked. With the same kind of mentality as binge drinking, people are going out to clubs, not to dance or enjoy any kind of holistic experience, but simply to get wasted.
According to 19 year-old ‘Danny’: “Ketamine’s become a regular, social thing for me now – it’s replaced alcohol for many of my friends as a general all-use drug.”
Jack from Kent echoes this sentiment: “Me and my compadres love K even though half the time we don’t have fun on it... [it] makes you dance like a bit of a twat and not really know where you are if you do too much, but if you get it just right it’s all the confidence of drinking heavily without the loss of balance.” Irrespective of any of the ethical and risk considerations that must accompany any drugs vs alcohol debate, it’s hard to contest that sniffing a small line of powder requires significantly less exertion, both physically and financially, than drinking ten pints of beer.
Alcohol aside, in comparison with other drugs, Ketamine is relatively inexpensive – the average UK price is around £20 for a gramme. Combine this with its high levels of potency and its appeal for those seeking a cost-effective way of getting wrecked becomes apparent.
Beyond this the drug is, in part at least, being widely adopted as a preferred means of inebriation simply because, like anything adopted from the gay scene for more homogenised mainstream use (with all the connotations of ‘newness’ attatched) Ket is currently considered ‘cool’.
That Ketamine might better lend itself to a more self contained, introverted sensory experience as opposed to a more communal one doesn’t seem to matter; the club scene in London right now is awash with kids who have the cash to splash on more Ket than they can actually handle, who seem as confused as to why they’re doing it as the people looking on trying to work out exactly why that kid is busting out some slo-mo swimming moves in the middle of the dancefloor and grabbing at the legs of passers by.

Of course there are those users who are in it for it’s psychedelic properties and know exactly why they are taking it. Noted Nu Age guru and counterculturalist Marcia Moore was a confirmed fan, with her book ‘Journeys Into the Bright World’ (1978), – which detailed her personal experiences from the K Hole and and beyond – being the most extensive early resource on the drug and its potentially mind bending properties.
Unfortunately for her, one night under the influence of Ket she decided to get reacquainted with nature and climb a tree, the only problem being that she quite literally never came down – her skeleton was eventually discovered sat on the same branch some 2 years later!
Despite this cautionary tale Ketamine remains popular for its properties as a psychedelic. Peter Glam, a 24 year-old user from London/Berlin recounts one of his typically trippy K-Hole experiences: “You do your line, lay back, take a deep breath and the music comes at you in weighty waves that carry you through tunnels, warehouses and museums in which you are on display for faceless hordes peering at you through the ceiling/wall/floor (whichever it is at the time). A lot of times people are there, and you have really nice conversations with them, in which you know everything about everything, then realize when a song changes that they were never there at all. I’m forever grateful to the Japanese boys who are always in my bathroom, holding my cloak back as I vomit from too much K, then helping me back into my bed.”

So with such a wide range of both uses and users where is all the Ketamine coming from? No, I don’t mean your mate Dave or your dodgy local dealer. I mean who’s the guy that they’re getting it from, getting it from? And more importantly, who’s he getting it from?? Customs have reported a growing trend in Ketamine importation since 2001, with most of it coming from Asia and India in particular. Legitimate pharmaceutical companies are re-labelling the packaging of Ketamine and shipping it in to Western buyers as an unregulated chemical or under the guise of rosewater and massage oils. Ketamine was only classified as a Class C drug in the UK just over 2 years ago and before then the process was even simpler. Back then dealers (aided by commercial advertising websites aimed at companies wishing to import and export products) would simply purchase liquid Ketamine by the litre, ship it in and then sell it on to club/street dealers at a profit margin of 300%.

As cocaine matched the opulent optimism of the early eighties and pills mirrored the revolutionary spirit of rave, a hallucinogenic tranquiliser seems to provide users the mirage of escapism to ease them through the perils of these rather uncertain credit crunch times. In terms of cultural product its influence can be seen in music, with songs written both about it (Kids on K by The Coolness, various Ket-referencing dubstep and electro tunes), and tracks made on it, in fashion trends (you didn’t think those keys everyone’s wearing round their necks were just to help them get in the house, right? See also: ‘Ketamine’ T-Shirts by Charles of London), and in a whole wave of new-psychedelic imagery that’s cropping up right now.

Whilst Ketamine’s socio-cultural impact has been relatively far reaching, its mainstream press coverage to date has been suprisingly muted, despite the fact that much of its use is going on right under the noses of the populist London media.
This absence of any distinct controversy, like that which accompanied the late 80s /early 90s ecstasy boom (and the subsequent death of Leah Betts which was linked to the drug), can’t be down to any lack of perceived risk associated with K. If my story earlier wasn’t enough to convince you of the potential dangers of Ket it’s important to note that there have already been several deaths related (both directly and indirectly) to the drug, and recent tests in Hong Kong have proven it causes long term liver damage and memory loss in some regular users.
Drugscope’s Harry Shapiro advises that “Ketamine use can also be particularly dangerous if used at the same time as depressant drugs such as alcohol, barbiturates, heroin or tranquilisers, as it can shut the body down to such an effect that the lungs or heart to stop functioning.”

Aside from these direct physical risks, the rise of Ketamine consumption has also (like any drug widely used amongst the 16-24 age bracket) given birth to innumerable cases of students dropping out of college/uni. “I did my first bump at 14 and am fast losing my childhood to Ketamine” says Ruby, a 16 year-old Ket user “though I can safely say that I would rather be doing K than GCSE’s...”
As well as these kind of stories there are also of reports surfacing of users who have become psychologically addicted to the drug to the extent that they have resorted to crime in order to feed their K fix. Tolerance for Ketamine builds very quickly and regular users will need larger and larger doses to get the same repeated high. “My ex boyfriend was hooked on it, spending over £40 a day on Ket for about a year” one girl told me. “It was getting ridiculous. He sold so much stuff to pay for it. Stealing, always being mashed – this is anonymous by the way cos if he found out I would be in so much shit! – but yeah, it was horrific. I’ve tried it myself and it makes you feel like a spaceman. It fucks you up bigtime.”

From a sociological perspective it will be interesting to note any changing trends amongst Ket users over the next few years. For now at least, recreational Ketamine use in the club and party scene remains, though widely adopted, a fundamentally middle class pursuit. If Ket is to become the drug that defines our generation, penetrating both popular culture and the public consciousness, then it still needs to transcend this usergroup to become ‘of the people’. A large part of the driving force behind ecstasy’s cultural impact in the late eighties and early nineties was its capacity to bring people together and democratise any perceived social or class barriers, particularly when large scale use was applied to the context of raves and clubs.
In contrast, Ketamine’s capacity to bring people together in such a way remains questionable (even in environments where it is being widely used), as does its capacity to assist in attaining sensory synchronicity within a club context. As a more ‘selfish’, self-contained drug, it is, for now at least, probably best to view the current wave of Ketamine use as being defined by our confused, credit crashing-binge drinking-Me-Me-Me times, rather than defining them itself.

Like the age in which we live, we have no idea where it’s all going or where it’s all gonna end. All we know is that, right now, Ketamine seems to be everywhere and its influence, and usage, is getting bigger and bigger and bigger...

YOUR SHOUT
In the course of making this article, SUPERSUPER invited you, our readers, to tell us your thoughts on Ketamine. We had an enormous response, so we’ve decided to run a representative selection here. We should also point out, on the record, that we do not in any way condone the use of Ketamine.

Daddy Longlegs, 19
“Ketamine’s become a regular, social thing for me now, it’s replaced alcohol for many of my friends as a general all-use drug. Nothing beats that first line when you come back wrecked from a rave and play some Fujiya & Miyagi tunes!
Ketamine gives you the option of a different end to a party; instead of sleep or smoking over a comedown, you can lie back and let your mind crumble...”

Natalia, 22
“I have never taken K, but loads of my friends do it and it totally freaks me out to be honest. The strangest thing about it is it seems to be a completely selfish drug, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I remember going out with my K-loving friend and him just falling all over everyone like a zombie all night. It really pissed me off to be honest because I couldn’t speak to him or dance with him or anything. It says a lot about the state of youth today – the idea that it’s cool to experience something that isn’t even enjoyable. It’s not like a lot of these kids have a hard life – on the contrary they are mostly middle class and comfortable. I think that’s part of the problem – it reflects a kind of stupid mediocrity and numbness. It kind of makes me sad that people think they are having fun by doing something isolated and lonely. I heard that song ‘K-Hole’ by that Ali Love and it made me think he was a complete twat.”

Jack, 21, Maidstone
“Me and my compadres love K even though half the time we don’t have fun on it. we used to use it as an ‘afterparty’ drug; doing little lines once we were home from a heavy night just to perk us up and bit and ensure we got up to a little more mischief before we crashed out. However recently it’s come into a class of its own with heavy usage all round, some nights out spent on K alone. Makes you dance like a bit of a twat and not really know where you are if you do too much but if you get it just right it’s all the confidence of drinking heavily without the loss of balance and graceful motor skills. The peak of my use was at Reading festival this year where I was tricked by some bigger boys into doing a massive line, I was standing maybe fifteen minutes before I curled up into the foetal position and claimed I didn’t know anything, occasionally lifting my head to cry ‘what’s going on!?’. From what I remember I thought I had always been in the K-hole & had always been at Reading but the humans around me were completely new to me and I found all their concepts of relationship were ridiculous. Oh yeah and I thought I was going to die. I love Ket.”

Vivian, 15
“Special k forever :]!
I tried it once. It was this summer actually, when I went to London. My friend surprised me with it because he knew I’d been wanting to try it.
Anyway, we tried it at an artsy party. It was a snazzy little powder and I did maybe 3 lines, or 4. After inhaling I felt like I was in slow motion, maybe in some obscure dimension where everything was different, ha-ha. Right after that I went into the K-hole. It sort of just opened up out of nowhere and swallowed me in. I don’t really remember much after that, or I do, but I can’t explain. I know that it was enlightening, like everything was revealed to me and my eyes were opening for the first time.
Everything was new.”

David, 23
“My friend’s brother fell through an Estate Agent’s window – his parents had to go and pick him up from the hospital so they did a blood test and it was a total shock to his parents. He’s got 3 massive scars on his face now – his face is really fucked.
I did it once when i was drunk – it was called ‘eckels’ and I took it not really knowing what it was. I ended up chipping my tooth because I became transfixated with trying to do an impossible form of breakdancing. My friend had to carry me like a wounded soldier all the way home. It’s a totally antisocial drug, it’s not like you can do it as a group or anything. I can understand how you can do it in the privacy of your own home if you are miserable and want to knock yourself out like in a sleeping pills kind of way. But I can’t really see the point of it as a recreational drug at all. It seems utterly pointless to be honest.”
Charlotte, London
“People who do too much Ketamine = KETAMINGERS.”

Rebecca
“Yeah I think Ketamine’s really great. I love to spend hours getting dressed up in a high maintenance outfit, and then spend all night drooling on people’s shoulders, leaning on them as they try to keep me upright. I’m famed for my intense yet witty conversation when I’m taking it, which usually sounds something like this....”yyyyaaaarrrbleeeurghhhhhnnnyyyaaaarrrr.” Legalise it now! And then lower the age limit!!”

Julian, Brighton
“Ketamine is utter SHIT. It’s a sad state of affairs when people need tranquilizers to go out & have a good time.
Stimulants like Amphetamines, Coke & Ecstasy at least make you faster & raises your heart BPM/adrenaline levels a little higher... and grass/mushrooms/acid at least trip you out & warps your visual perceptions/imagination... but K just razes you to the ground & clouds your mind like alcoholism. My friends who think K is cool are complete TWATS, without exception.”

Artemis
“It’s fucking disgusting. My own tranquiliser, Lorazepam is a lot more fun. I mean, for god’s sake ket is a HORSE tranq! It makes you lick postboxes and whatnot... Never nice”

Anonymous
“My ex boyfriend was hooked on it for about a year spending over £40 a day on it. It was getting ridiculous. He sold so much stuff to pay for it. Stealing. Always being mashed. This is anonymous by the way isn’t it? – if he found out I would be in so much shit. But yeah it was horrific. I’ve tried it myself and it makes you feel like a spaceman. It’s not good at all. It fucks you up big-time and makes you do things you’d never do. I hate the stuff now. It’s all well and good doing it in that moment but as soon as you’re on it. you can’t wait to get off.”

Beaver, 19
“Ket sux!! I know someone who was the nicest, most attractive of the females I know. Then she got into Ket and became the quietest person in our crew – she misses some weeks completely cos she’s mashed. It’s not good brethren!”

Jack, 21, Essex
“Ha-ha, I think basically because everyone is over their MDMA honeymoon and now would prefer to do a few lines and pop out than drop a couple of bombs and spend all night with a horrible gurn and all the next day nursing chapped lips, chewed to fuck mouths and brains that feel like they’ve been emptied of any useful content.
Although having said that nobody really likes having to try and do lines in a club, always a recipe for disaster.
It also compliments drinking, and you are more likely to be funny on K than you are MD, it’s all good and well hugging one another and spending the evening in the smoking area talking but really a night is made by the stories that come from it. And walking around like the dude from ‘Fear and Loathing’ and then almost getting kicked out for trying to climb on the bar is far more of a story than ‘I bonded with Dave’.
I guess its sudden availability (in Kent at least) over the past year also has a part to play and it certainly does seem to be the drug du jour – everyone seems to be doing it all of a sudden, even kids. At Reading my local K dealer was 14!”

Alex, 20, South London
“First time I took Ket I played Pro Evo on the Xbox and I lost all comprehension of the third dimension (on screen) so everything became 2d. I then proceeded to K-hole on my bed. Much safer than 8 pints and a couple of shots of vodka!”

Emily, 17, Manchester
“I was at Leeds Festival 08, and tried Ket for the first time. I did the first couple of lines and I really liked it, I can remember saying to my friend that I felt okay but my head felt like it was on the ferris wheel, floating around slowly. Everything was really good until I hit my 4th line of the day. At first I felt normal but then I started feeling sick and had to go and sit down on a chair and drink some water. One of my friends was saying I was pulling a whitey, but I wasn’t. So I went round to the back of my friend’s tent and sat there for a while feeling ill, texting my friend telling her to text her boyfriend (who I was with at Leeds, and she was back in Manchester) getting him to come to the back of his tent to come and find me. When he got there I just looked at him for a moment, and came out with “shit...”. He was talking to me for a bit but I didn’t reply. When I asked if I could speak I tried but no sound came out of my mouth. I lay back down in frustration and tried to speak, this time I did it! I then sat back up to see if I could talk like that but I couldn’t, I started laughing silently and my friend pushed me down and then the noise came flowing out, he brought me back up and I was silent again. At the time it was the wastest thing I had ever experienced, it was pretty bad, and I can’t remember how I brought myself out of it, but I knew I had to coz Justice were on in 45 minutes.
My first and last to date K-HOLE.”

Ben, 17, Durham
“I myself use Ket regularly. I use it at the end of a night after other substances (cocaine, E) as you get a buzz for half an hour and then it knocks you out, it also seems to rid you of a comedown the next day. I wouldn’t use Ket on a night out as I don’t think it suits that sort of environment. I class Ket as a safe drug as long as you know the crack and don’t take too much.”

Emily 19 Nottingham
“The first time I did Ketamine in a club my friends said I claimed to see a massive polar bear with pink lipstick on mowing through all the other club kids. Then I spent a good ten minutes in the bathroom spinning on the spot. Yup it was a gooood night thanks to that horse guy. My thoughts – ‘did you see that? it just flew right up my nose!’.”

Peter Glam, 24, London/Berlin
“Ohh! As has been well documented over the years in various mediums, I am definitely pro K! Though I must say, I’m not into people getting so zombiefied in public places that they sneeze in other people’s sleeves, shit themselves or throw up in their purse while letting some bouncer check their oral cavities (I’ve been there, it’s not a good look!).
I prefer to take Ketamine in the comfort of my own home, for the sought after ‘journey’.
I take a LOT of Ketamine. There’s a whole ritual with it as well. My flatmate and bff Sarah Poppers and I will set up the room, with interesting things dangling from the ceiling (like the K KING and QUEEN – lovely little marionette style puppets she made), lighting with strange shadows, umbrellas hanging from skylights, etc. Then we get out our trusty Edie Sedgwick hardback book and dump a wrap out onto it, dividing it into ‘pre-line-previews,’ ‘pre-lines’, and ‘journey-lines’. We space these out, easing ourselves into the warm fuzzy envelope of anaesthesia. During the pre-line-previews and pre-lines, we smoke cigarettes and listen to whatever music takes our fancy at the time. Sometimes, I turn on a tape recorder (ie rape recorder) and record whatever garbled rubbish we manage to string together into sentences. These will be used in a series of rape tapes, which I plan to make into a book. When we feel sufficiently fucked, we then begin to prepare for a journey. The right music is essential. We usually go for granddaddy’s album ‘The Sophtware Slump’ or sometimes something by Bjork, Radiohead, Godspeed You Black Emperor, or Sigur Ros. You do your line, lay back and link arms, and take a deep breath as the music comes at you in weighty waves that carry you through tunnels, warehouses, museums in which you are on display for faceless hordes peering at you through the ceiling/wall/floor, whichever it is at the time. And a lot of times people are there, and you have really nice conversations with them, in which you know everything about everything, then realize when a song changes that they were never there at all.
I’ll always be grateful to the Japanese boys who are always in my bathroom, holding my cloak back as I vomit from too much K, then helping me back to my bed.
If you would like to hear more on my thoughts and experiences, let me know, but I only have 2 minutes and 32 seconds of internet time left before the computer turns off. tschuss! xxx”

Ruqy
“Hmmm I did my first bump at 14 and am fast losing my childhood to Ketamine! – though I can safely say that I would rather be doing K than GCSEs...”

Mark, 19
“Ket is mainly popular now cos it’s so easily available compared to things like Ecstasy which aren’t as much really.
As for what I think about taking it, I believe that all human experience is worthwhile, I believe the more you say yes to things, the better! After all, humanity is a curious race, that’s what puts us apart from animals, and what has driven our evolution to the point where we ourselves could be the creators of the next universe.
lolz deep!”

Editors note: In recent months a relatively new drug known as Methadrone has come to light on the London clubscene. 4-Methoxymethcathinone, to use its proper name is known to produce stimulant like effects similar to MDMA although there is very little research into the compounds side effects or the consequences of using it. Will methadrone or 'drone' as it has been nicknamed surpass Ketamine as the drug 'de jour' in cllubland.

Article by supersupertv