KETAMINE DRUG USE INCREASES NATIONWIDE

He is 25 years old, with dyed blond hair, earrings and striking blue eyes.

But those eyes look away now, embarrassed, as he talks about sticking a
straw into a bag of "Special K" and snorting a spoonful up his nose.

This former Kansas City art student, who asked that his name not be used,
is not talking about a spoonful of half-inch wheat flakes fortified with iron.

He's talking about the drug Ketamine, known on the street as "Special K,"
or simply "K," an anesthetic drug commonly used by veterinarians while
declawing, neutering or spaying cats.

But humans are taking the drug, too.

The drug in its original form looks like water and can be injected. But the
most popular way to take it is to cook it down into a white powder. Then
users snort, swallow or smoke it to achieve a dreamlike state and
experience hallucinations similar to the effects of using phencyclidine
(PCP), Ketamine's chemical cousin.

"If you're on K, and someone's sawing your arm off, although it will still
hurt -- you won't care," said the former art student. "That describes it
exactly."

Ketamine is one of several club drugs nationwide that people, mostly young
teens, are snorting, ingesting and shooting into themselves.

Since August, four veterinary hospitals in the metropolitan area have
reported break-ins in which vials of Ketamine were stolen. Police suspect
the thieves either sell the drug in clubs or use it themselves.

Veterinary offices across the United States have been reporting similar
break-ins since 1997. Three years ago, the American Veterinary Medical
Association encouraged its members to install burglar alarms and keep all
drugs locked away after a rash of Ketamine thefts.

In late January of this year, police in Illinois arrested five persons in a
Ketamine sting at a veterinary clinic. The five were connected with 20
burglaries of clinics throughout Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Minnesota.

Although use of the drug in Kansas City appears to lag behind use in other
cities, that may be changing with the area's recent break-ins, said Jayne
Tomko of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

"Unfortunately, with these thefts my guess is that we'll be seeing a lot
more of the drug than we had before," she said.

The Jackson County Drug Task Force is also monitoring the drug's popularity
here.

"What's trendy first in the clubs of New York City and Los Angeles
eventually finds its way here. We've heard about it, but it's only in
limited usage here, so far," said Jeff Seever, a member of the task force.

The art student said in his experience with the drug, use in the area is
sporadic. The drug's availability in Kansas City comes in waves.

"There have been K-famines (last) summer in Kansas City. Most people have
to go to St. Louis or Chicago if they want to score some," he said. "In the
gay clubs people are doing trail mix, which is a combination of Ecstasy and
Ketamine. But K is nowhere as easy to get as cocaine is in Kansas City."

Obtaining the drug may be more difficult since the penalties for possessing
it changed last year. That's when Attorney General Janet Reno approved the
DEA's endorsement of classifying Ketamine as a controlled substance after
Ketamine use began increasing at rave parties, schools, college campuses
and nightclubs. Now, illegal possession of Ketamine could land a person in
prison for five years.

Although Ketamine is thought of as a relatively new drug, it is older than
most of its users realize. The drug was developed at the University of
Michigan in 1965 as a safer anesthesia for human surgeries. At moderate
doses, it does not affect breathing or the circulatory system.

The drug quickly found use on the battlefields of Vietnam as an anesthesia
that soldiers could carry in their packs to relieve pain from severe
wounds. But just as quickly, human patients began reporting short-term
hallucinations as the drug wore off.

Some users reported having astral projections of their bodies, previewing
their own deaths, even talking with God. Ketamine is still in use today as
an anesthetic for the elderly, for severe burn victims and for the very
young, but physicians combine it with another drug to suppress its
hallucinogenic effect.

A neuroscientist famous for his use of Ketamine is John Lilly, whose life
inspired two movies: "Day of the Dolphins" and "Altered States." Lilly, 85,
lives in Maui, where he studies the intelligence of dolphins. But at one
point in the 1970s he took Ketamine every hour for two weeks, then wrote
about it in his autobiographical novel, The Scientist. He began taking the
drug to help ease his migraines, but soon it took him to other realities
where he spoke with alien beings, he wrote.

Ketamine's lure to users may be its supposed mystical qualities, but its
qualities as a useful medicine are being evaluated. Through an organization
called the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, clinics
in Spain and Russia are studying its usefulness in treating alcoholics and
terminal cancer patients.

"I'm not one to jump up and down and say how horrible these drugs are. But
when most people take it, they're not ready for the psychological
experiences that this drug can produce," said Rick Doblin, the executive
director of the multidisciplinary association in Boston.

Ketamine, like other hallucinogens, can make psychotherapy more effective,
said Alan Trachtenberg of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment in Maryland.

"Ketamine can create that Paul-on-the-road-to-Damascus intense spiritual
experience that can catalyze an alcoholic or heroin addict into
re-examining his life," he said. "Just like other potent drugs, Ketamine
can be extremely helpful in the right clinical context. Or it can be deadly."

Trachtenberg said that he didn't know of any deaths reported from Ketamine
used by itself, but the drug is more commonly mixed with other drugs,
including alcohol, marijuana and Ecstasy, another club drug. At least one
death was reported on the East Coast last year after a teen mixed Ketamine
with heroin, according to the Drug Abuse Warning Network.

"Most kids who buy the stuff (Ketamine) have absolutely no idea what it is
they're actually getting," Trachtenberg said. "Maybe there's some Ketamine
in it, maybe there's some PCP.

"The usage of this drug will increase, we're sure about that, but let's
keep this in perspective. We have a very, very severe problem with
addictions to heroin and cocaine. Why are people more concerned with club
drugs? Because these are mostly white middle-class kids taking them.

"The biggest drug problems facing our society today are still alcohol, then
tobacco. Club drugs rate third combined with all the other drugs out there.

"Ketamine usage is not epidemic, yet."