The Effect of Ketamine Drugs and Medicine

Ketamine is used in the party scene, but also in health care. There are indications that it can be used as an antidepressant as well as a painkiller. What is the effect of ketamine, how is it used and what happens if you start snorting keta drugs and end up in a K Hole? We answer all your questions.

What is Ketamine?

You or your pets might have been given it once as an anesthetic in the hospital, or you might have snorted a "nakkie keta" at a party. But what exactly is ketamine? Ketamine, ket, keta or special K is a dissociative substance discovered in 1962 by Calvin Stevens. The American chemist was at the Parke Davis Lab searching for alternatives to the then widely used PCP. Not much later, in 1965, it became clear that ketamine could be used in humans and animals as an anesthetic. Soon it was being used in the medical world to relieve pain after certain treatments and the substance C13H16ClNO was included in the WHO's list of essential medicines. Calvin Stevens' discovery did not go unnoticed in the party scene either. Keta has been used at parties and afters for decades. Ketamine is usually injected, administered rectally or taken orally for medical reasons. The party drug ketamine is usually snorted in powder form.

The Effects of Ketamine

So what do you feel when you end up in the hospital and are administered ketamine? What is the effect of ketamine? Ketamine increases your heart rate and blood pressure. It dilates your airways and increases saliva production. The substance provides dissociative pain relief. That means that after administration, you are awake but no longer feel pain stimuli. Whether you can call it conscious is questionable, because from a little ketamine you are completely overwhelmed. It numbs your body in an extreme form. It is also a hallucinogenic substance, but just a little differently than, say, under the influence of magic mushrooms or LSD. Therefore, it is often administered in combination with tranquilizers or benzodiazepine to counteract violent hallucinations. Because no, not everyone wants to end up in a keta trip. Especially not if you just woke up after surgery. Using keta reduces your muscle coordination. That's why it feels like your legs are elastic when you are tripping and trying to walk. In high doses, you may feel like you are dissolving into your surroundings or that your body parts no longer belong to your body. The feeling of stepping out of your body can also come up at high doses.

In recent years, there has been a lot of research on other medicinal effects of ketamine. For example, there are studies showing that ketamine is effective against anxiety and depression. In fact, in psychiatry, they are already working with ketamine treatments. More on that later.

How Is Ketamine Made?

Unlike many other hard drugs like meth or cocaine, ketamine is almost always made from the same substances. Illegally sold ketamine, as well as ketamine for medicinal use, is made safely in animal practices, hospitals or laboratories. It is seized in some way before it enters the illicit trade. Ingredients of ketamine include ketamine hydrochloride, silica gel, stevia, acacia, citric acid, flavorings and polyethylene glycol 1450 [1]. Little is publicly known about the exact manufacturing process. We strongly discourage you from experimenting on your own.

Ketamine Drugs | Keta

That narcotic effect of ketamine is music to the ears of party people. Since the 1980s it has been used extensively as a party drug during festivals, raves and the associated afters. When you snort a lot of ketamine, you feel numb. Eventually it can cause you to no longer feel your own body or even end up in a K hole: a plight in which you are conscious but unable to move. Some people like the feeling very much. Soldiers and prostitutes used it for this reason during the Vietnam War. 

Ketamine Snorting & Dosage

So the party drug is most commonly taken nasally. Ketamine snorting is usually felt after 5 to 10 minutes. It is wise to wait at least 30 minutes before taking another dose, otherwise you may end up in a nasty K hole. Ket is incredibly concentrated and therefore difficult to dose. For a strong form of keta, 10 to 30 mg is a light dose. From 70 mg on, you go toward the high doses with extreme effects. Everything in between can be called average. Don't have a scale at hand to weigh the right ketamine dosage? Then realize that there is usually a gram in your pack or bag. So a tenth of the packet is more than enough. Ketamine snorting in the party scene is therefore often done with key points rather than thick lines. We call such a key point a bump.

How long will Keta last?

So it is an incredibly strong, concentrated party drug. So the question "how long does keta last?", comes up often. Are you going to try ketamine drugs yourself, or has a friend of yours been lying on the couch slacking off for a while? Keta works about an hour after ingestion. Of course, that depends on the dosage. But if you or your buddy aren't feeling well, you know it will be over fairly quickly.

Ketamine on a key
Ketamine snorting is usually done this way.

How Long Does Keta Stay in Your Blood?

Since the drug is popular, many people wonder how long ketamine stays in your blood. Before we clarify that, we want to mention that the detectability of ketamine in the body, like weed, depends on how it is tested. Keta remains detectable in your blood for only a few days, research shows. But do you get a urine test, for example? Then it can be detected in your body up to four times as long after ingestion. In a nutshell:

  • How long does keta stay in your blood? Up to 4 days after ingestion.
  • How long is ketamine detectable in your urine? Up to 15 days after ingestion.

Please note that the above data depends on how heavily you use ketamine. We cannot say for sure that you will actually pass the drug test after this period. Think of it as an indication.

Keta and Alcohol

If you want to use ketamine at a party, rave or after, you may want to combine it with alcohol. Please don't do that! You can read in our blog about combining all kinds of drinks and drugs that the combination of keta and alcohol can be life-threatening. This is mainly due to the fact that both alcohol and keta suppress your breathing. When you use both you can pass out just like that. Fainting, nausea, vomiting and complete disorientation are also among the effects of keta and alcohol. So please watch out!

Is Ketamine Addictive?

If you take ketamine drugs on a regular basis, you can easily become addicted. This is because you quickly build up tolerance, so you need more ketamine for the same effect. Ket causes you to completely lose your sense of time, and it can completely suck you out of everyday reality. Such a narcotic keta trip can feel so good that you would rather keep using it than get sober again. Another consequence is that you start taking poor care of yourself and not fulfilling obligations, with all the consequences that come with it. Do you get addicted to ketamine drugs? Then the consequences can be severe. Your memory starts functioning poorly and there are examples of users who have been left with a stoma from their addiction. In addition, regularly ending up in a K Hole is no fun either, according to users' experiences.

Young guy with his head on a table after snorting too much ketamine and stuck in a k-hole.
Snorting too much ketamine? Then you can end up in a K Hole.

K Hole Experiences 

You may have heard of it before: a K Hole after using ketamine. You end up in a K Hole when you have taken excessive amounts. You then have no feeling left in your body and cannot move. Some people report in K Hole experiences that they step out of their bodies. Does this sound fun to you? Then think again. In fact, a K Hole can be very intense. From some experiences, such a state can be very frightening, because for an extended period of time it seems like you are dying. You are there but cannot do anything and you feel yourself slowly sinking. Talking is not an option and you seem to be going down a tunnel toward the light. The same image that people describe who have gone through a near-death experience. So don't take it too lightly. Some K Hole experiences will make your skin crawl while reading. 

Other Ketamine Experiences 

Curious about other ketamine experiences? They vary enormously. For some, such dissociative pain relief or sedation is wonderful. For another, it's hell on earth. A fun and informative video to gain more insight into the effects of ketamine and experiences of a frequent user can be found below.

Ketamine as Medicine 

So we know that ketamine is used as an anesthetic and painkiller in health care. But what else can you do with this "medicine"? Many scientists have been studying that question in recent years. What do they find? The substance stimulates the stimulus transmission of some nerve cells in the brain. After seeing the most recent research results, we can say with certainty that ketamine works against various mental disorders such as PTSD, anxiety, bipolar disorder, severe depression and addictions. There is even talk in scientific circles of "curing the mind with ketamine”.

The global market size for ketamine treatments was already estimated to exceed $130 million by 2021 and is expected to grow annually. In The Netherlands people who have been treated for severe depression before can go to the UMCG (Universitair Medisch Centrum Groningen), if it turns out that regular treatments have been ineffective. These ketamine treatments are used in several international studies. This means that research on the drug ketamine is still ongoing. In 2023, news came out that psychedelic drugs such as LSD, magic mushrooms and ketamine may work against chronic pain.

We would caution you not to experiment with ketamine drugs yourself for self-help. Such ketamine treatments take place under professional supervision and subject to strict requirements. If the drug is used incorrectly, it can actually worsen symptoms.

Beware of Street Powders 

As with other white powders, ketamine is something to be careful of when you get it from anywhere. In some cases, ketamine is adulterated with dextrose, PCP or even worse: fentanyl. In the latter case, it could be your last line. With this drug test, you can at least check for common substitutes or adulterants, but beware that it is only an indication.

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