Partying Brits High on 'Special K' Horse Drug

Cheap ketamine pushing aside cocaine
By Peter Fearon,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 15, 2009 3:17 AM CST
Partying Brits High on 'Special K' Horse Drug
Revelers at England's 2008 Glastonbury music festival. Police confiscated twice as much ketamine there as in 2007.   (Getty Images)

Horse tranquilizer "Special K" or ketamine has become one of the most popular illegal drugs in Britain, pushing aside cocaine, according to a crime survey. Ketamine—which can be swallowed, snorted, injected and smoked—can cause respiratory failure, but its low cost and reputation for being "safe" and non-addictive encourages users to try increasingly large doses, reports the Independent.

"Coke is more expensive and it generally makes everyone very loud and aggressive," said a regular ketamine user. " Ket makes you feel anesthetised to your worries. Everything is euphoric." The drug has been linked to 23 deaths in the UK since 1993.
(More ketamine stories.)

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