Kreetika Kumar 
The emergence of ketamine on our streets has prompted Drug Free World to conduct outreach and raise awareness to provide factual information.
Recently, a woman in Sigatoka was allegedly found with 15 vials of ketamine, which raises concerns regarding the source and effect of this drug.
Ketamine, categorized as a “dissociative anesthetic,” is used in powdered or liquid form as an anesthetic, usually on animals.
Due to the detached, dreamlike state it creates, Drug Free World Fiji Founder Kalesi Volatabu says ketamine has been used as a “date-rape” drug.
“You can actually sprinkle it into a glass or a cup and spike a drink with it. It actually immobilizes the person. It puts them in such a death trench that they don’t even realize what’s happening to them. So what you would use, they use a lot. They found it in rape drugs.”
Drug Free World Fiji Founder Kalesi Volatabu.
Volatabu adds there is currently no evidence to highlight which age group of people are widely using this drug.
“The thing is, when somebody’s been induced with ketamine, they forget what happened to them, so it blanks out your memory. So it gives you, like, temporary amnesia. You don’t remember what’s happened to you, so the threat is not just for young people; it is to women and men, children and youth.”
Meanwhile, Volatabu says ketamine users can also develop cravings for the drug.
At high doses, users experience an effect referred to as “K-Hole,” an “out of body” or “near-death” experience.
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