DOSE:		smoked	Cannabis	(plant material)
	25 mg	IM	Ketamine	(liquid)

BODY WEIGHT:

80 kg

I have read quite a bit about ketamine in the last 5 years, and have endlessly questioned any friends, who had experienced the effects, as to what they thought of it.
Although I have tried most drugs commonly encountered (most experience with psychedelics), I have never tried any dissociatives. The main reason for this is that I lost my left hand in an explosion at the age of 13, and this produced an intense OBE. The prospect of reliving this episode was enough to prevent me trying ketamine, at least up until this morning.

A few days ago, I was given a 10ml bottle of Ketaset as a ‘birthday present’ (I will be 40 in 5 weeks) by a friend who is a vet (to whom, in the past, I have given doses of uncommon/rare psychedelics such as AMT, mescaline, yohimbine etc.) who knew I was interested in the drug. After having the bottle in my possession for a few days, I thought, “act now, or your nerve will go and you’ll never try it”, so I drew up 0.25ml in an insulin syringe and prepared myself by smoking a small amount of buds to reduce any possible nausea. After reading some reports, I decided the best place to try it was in bed, to reduce the body load effects, so I disconnected the telephone, made up a bottle of weak ginger beer and drew the bedroom curtains. Unable to decide on any music, I switched on the television, purely for some background noise. As luck would have it, the schools were on holiday, and to cater for this, BBC2 had a Thunderbirds film showing. Perfect I thought, non-threatening television. After again checking the BNF (British National Formulary) for any possible adverse reactions with amphetamine (from the night before), I decided the moment had come and climbed into bed.

11:15 (T +0:00)
Only slight effects remain from earlier cannabis consumption; injected 0.25ml into right buttock. As soon as I withdrew the needle I felt a slight panic along the lines of “what the fuck have you just done”, but this passed quickly so I got comfortable on my side and waited.

11.20 (T +0:05)
Felt something like a warm flush pass through my body, then noticed that unless I concentrated, I wasn’t really aware of my limbs, but absolutely no anxiety.

11:30 (T +0:15)
The only part of my body that I was aware of was my mouth and throat, then only when I swallowed. The sound from the television sounded like it was coming from a room far away down a long corridor, and seemed to be made up of disconnected phrases (although I could still recognise the voices as belonging to various Thunderbirds characters). I had read that under the influence of ketamine, people were unsure if their eyes were open or closed. I had never quite understood this, but now I knew. My only way of explaining this is that the brain goes into “time lapse photography” mode, but in between visual snapshots, the visual cortex continuously displays the last snapshot. All during this time, I kept thinking, “I must remember this”, but was aware that at the rate that thoughts were coming and going, I could only hope to hang onto a few.

After this, time stopped having any relevance, and understanding the clock was way beyond the complexity of any logic puzzle I had encountered. During the next 40(?) mins the only memory that I can recall with any clarity was the feeling that I knew the joy of being a part of International Rescue after a successful mission (this must have corresponded with the end of the film). Other than that, my next memory is of the alarm clock waking me up at 2:00pm (set beforehand, just in case), feeling a bit fuzzy headed (similar to the morning after a night of heavy cannabis use), and a low grade nausea that persisted until early evening.

This was not the epiphany that I have read about some people having with ketamine, but then again, this was more of a “scouting party” into the realm of ketamine to give me an idea of the lay of the land. Overall, it reminded me of a state experienced as a child, when my mother would tell me I had to get up for school, and I would be convinced I was up and going downstairs for breakfast, when I would hear her voice again telling me that I would be late if I didn’t get up right now.

I can’t say that ketamine could be classed as my favourite drug (that honour goes to AMT!), but the birthday present was very welcome, and will not go to waste.

Exp Year: 2003	ExpID: 24070
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jun 27, 2005	Views: 59,012
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Ketamine (31) : First Times (2), Alone (16)