SPECIAL K

Special K is ketamine hydrochloride, a drug widely used as an animal tranquilizer by veterinarians in pet surgery. Normally found in injectable form, it is converted into a powder and re-packaged in small zip lock bags or capsules. Ketamine is generally snorted. It is a powerful hallucinogen. Special K is usually snorted but is sometimes sprinkled on tobacco or marijuana and smoked. Special K is frequently used in combination with other drugs, such as Ecstasy, heroin and cocaine.

Users sometimes call the high caused by Special K, "K hole" and describe profound hallucinations that include visual distortions and a lost sense of time, sense and identity. The high lasts anywhere from a half-hour to 2 hours.

Ketamine was first synthesized by a pharmaceutical company in the early 1960s to be used as an anesthetic for surgeries. Special K, or powdered ketamine, emerged as a recreational drug in the 1970s and was known as "Vitamin K" in the underground club scene in the 1980s. It resurfaced as "Special K" during the 1990s in the rave scene.