Injecting - How to IM inject Ketamine

[Beltane]

SWIM's done 1000's of hits of Ketamine and considers Intramuscular injection the best (and basically only) way to administer it. Here's what SWIY needs to know:

First, relax. I.M. is not I.V. Where I.V. is like skydiving, I.M. is like stepping off the curb. Metaphorically of course, but SWIM is referring to both the effects and degree of difficulty regargding the difference in these two methods of administration.

Second, don't mess around with I.V. Ketamine. It's been tried and commented on by many experienced users. The consensus is that the overall experience of I.V. Ketamine is simply far inferior to that of an I.M. administration.

To turn crystal Ketamine into liquid, add 1 gram of powder (hopefully pure) to 10 ml of distilled water (in the most sterile conditions SWIY can set up.) This will yield 10ml of liquid. This liquid now contains 100mg Ketamine per ml; that's 100mg/ml. Now 1CC = 1ml = 100mg, which in SWIM's opinion is the perfect IM dose.

Info on the most simple IM inection sites and methods can be found on many websites. Use Google to search for "How to give an intramuscular injection" or "How to do an intramuscular injection." There's plenty of infomation out there.

For I.M. injection of liquid Ketamine, SWIM suggests 28 gauge (29 will work but are a little delicate,) 1 CC insulin syringe.

Basically a potential I.M.'er will make sure the syringe is full of Ketamine and has no air bubbles. The SWIY would swab the injection site with an alcohol swab to clean the injection location. Next, jab the needle (like throwing a dart) into a muscle in the appropriate location (very forgiving.) Now pull back on the plunger to make sure SWIY hasn't hit a vein (which really wouldn't be a big deal, but would no longer qualify as an I.M. injection.) After insuring the needle is not in a vein, push the plunger in at whatever speed is most comfortable for SWIY. Then re-apply alcohol swab and massage injection site to help aid in absorption and minimize post-injection pain.

BTW, if SWIY has successfully avoided hitting a vein, when the plunger is pulled back there will be a vacuum effect inside the syringe. SWIY should be aware, however, that the tiniest air bubble in the syringe will grow in size because of this vacuum effect. Don't let this scare SWIY. If there were no visible bubbles before insertion, don't worry about anything that shows up during the pull-back-vacuum-effect.

IM Ketamine hits in 2 minutes or less and comes on strong, so be prepared to be in whatever position you plan to spend the next hour. SWIM suggests sitting comfortable or lying down.

Enter questions here for answers about I.M. injection and quit snorting something that should be injected I.M. Trust SWIM on this one.

- Beltane

P.S. SWIM is pondering uploading some videos of SWIM IM injecting distilled water in order to demonstrate the method. Reply and/or PM if this would be of interest to anyone.

NO LINKS TO COMMERCIAL SITES.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Nice summary of the basics
	Informative.
	Great informative post, with good advice against IV use of K
	Very good guide
	Thanks for the good informative post. SWIM is reassured by your method.

[Mr.E.Charlie]

Thanks for that Beltane , very useful and informative .

SWIM now plans to IM ketamine , sounds safe and clean .

Video would be great . Thanks .

[enquirewithin]

Enter questions here for answers about I.M. injection and quit snorting something that should be injected I.M.

Is there a need to proselytize? People may like sniffing K because it's more relaxed and less serious.

[Beltane]

Originally Posted by enquirewithin

Is there a need to proselytize? People may like sniffing K because it's more relaxed and less serious.

A philosophically interesting question. If a guy were married to a woman on the pill but never thought of not using a rubber. under the right curcumstances I believe he should be encouraged to try it bareback. After that he can certqinly make up his own mind.

SWIM sees IM K as equivalent to bareback and believes most people who like K should try it IM before choosing their preferred method of administration.

- Beltane

[enquirewithin]

Sure it works better-- no one who had tried could deny that. That's what SWIM tells me anyway. Ketamine was designed for injection. I'm not sure about the condom analogy.

The ketamine clubbers are into something different from people who use K for deeper inner exploration.

[raven3davis]

Great advise.......Beltane is right, ketamine is meant to I.M.
......unless you are at a rave and rolling hard on mdma/mda, then bumps are acceptable SWIM uses k for deep exploraton but every psychonaut has to have fun sometimes

SWIM saw his friends use 22 gauge needles or some shit. It looked very painful. SWIM agrees that 28 gauge is best. A video would be radddd!

[Heretic.Ape.]

Just added to drug use archive: Intramuscular Injection, reprinted from the Nursing Procedures 3rd edition 2000.

[LazyD]

Another video request please

[JapanHorrorUncut]

SWIM knew a couple of people who died IVin K. SWIM would and did always stick to snorting. IV ing amounts can vary very much from person to person.

[LazyD]

um, really? I thought (can't remember where I read it but I have it tagged as reputable in my mind) that a fatal dose of K is around the 4-5g pure mark. If one litre of ketamine generally makes 50g of powder, then 4g = 80ml. Even if you get the ketamine where it is (somehow) double density and 50g powder is in 500ml (I've had it before, and the powder does definitely come out at full weight) then you are talking about 40ml liquid. This is the reason why ketamine is considered very safe. It is virtually impossible to OD by insufflation, you are gonna be out by the time you get 4-5 grams up your nose, or just too clogged up to do it. It's also difficult to OD by accident via IM or IV again due to the large quantity required.

Now, I don't know if you can even get 40ml, let alone 80ml, syringes that are non specialist equipment. Swim certainley didn't go that large in a chemist swim used to work in. Of course your 2 friends that died could have been on some sort of slow release mechanism that went wrong, or a drip in a hospital. Is this what happened to your friends?

I read that rapid IV of K can stop breathing and lead to death, but this would occur in much higher than "safe" doses and you could consider carrying out such an act suicidal or extremely reckless with risk of death, at best.

[JapanHorrorUncut]

SWIMs friends both were shooting large amounts, several shots. Breathing stopped and noone was around to take them to hospital, thus death. They both shot H too but not on that day. I'm not sure if that lead to their death or not. Too young too die too

[Felonious Skunk]

^^^^ Better check that story, ace. At such doses one would be unconscious after the first shot and, unless it was an IV drip (nonsensical) or administered by someone else (murder), it would be impossible to self-administer the second.

You say breathing stopped, but directly relating that to ketamine I find incredible. I would, however, be persuaded to consider that asphyxiation might occur secondary to losing consciousness as in the case of DM Turner, but these cases are extremely rare, and you know two of them?

Another possibility would be an anaphylactic reaction to the drug, but if these two were regular "IV-ers," then that is likely not the case.

Unless there is a coroner's toxological report in support of it, the claim that "two people died from the self-administration of IV ketamine" is unbelievable and misinformative. While this information may be accurate to the best of your knowledge, it's irresponsible to state it as fact when the victims were IV heroin users who died of respiratory failure.

The odds are highly in favor death caused by opiate-induced respiratory depression and not a ketamine overdose.

[Paracelsus]

Ketamine depresses respiration significantly. Hardcore experimenters may get their shots by someone else (this is not always murder). Also, respiratory depression from heroin does certainly not last over a day (read the post).

Anyways, if either of you want to argue this out, please continue by PM. A serious debate would be good. But fighting only by PM.

[LazyD]

Yeah, what Felonius Skunk said. I don't mean to accuse you of anything but this kind of story is very damaging. Maybe you don't have you facts straight?

If as you say they were doing multiple shots, what size syringes were they using? Most of the heroin users I've encountered use 1ml syringes (indeed most of the cases of ketamine IM and IV such as accounts on this site have used the same size), if your distilled water mix is 10ml = 1g pure ketamine then it would take around 40 full hits or more to OD.

Even if they were using the 30ml syrings that some bodybuilders use, and had a full 3g pure ketamine in the mix, it's still going to take more than one hit. Injecting 30ml sounds mental anyway, can that be even be done in one go? As for injecting a second time after that kind of dose, I would say it can't be done. Of course someone could have done it to them.

Can you please explain more of the details surrounding this such as the size of the syringes, the amount of ketamine in the water they used and whether other people were involved in administration or not. I think it's important to learn these details.

[Felonious Skunk]

Originally Posted by Paracelsus

...Also, respiratory depression from heroin does certainly not last over a day (read the post)...

Agreed. The implication was that perhaps the victims had shot opiates that day without his knowledge. It's also possible that an opiate-ketamine combination could result in additive CNS and respiratory depressant effects.

Originally Posted by Paracelsus

...Anyways, if either of you want to argue this out, please continue by PM. A serious debate would be good. But fighting only by PM.

No fighting. I just felt a need to respond to claims of incidents I feel to be highly unlikely and that may be based on information the poster received that was incomplete and/or incorrect.

[Friend_Dope]

SWIM is trying to get her friend to sent a bottle of ketamine to her from another country. And SWIM wants to do an IM injection. If that so, should SWIM use the whole bottle (10 ml) and follow Beltane instructions!?
Thanks!!

[Paracelsus]

Sending controlled substances through the mail is risky. I wouldn't do it. As for injecting, if ketamine is available in liquid form, the above instructions seem fine (except one doesn't have to dissolve anything in water because it's already in liquid form).

[Lettish]

Swim is very interested in seeing a video of the IM injection.

Hydroxy

[EntheogenicTruth]

SWIM is considering an IM administration of a vial of ket. maybe this weekend... can any swiy suggest a good dosage? bout 60 kgs he is

[Paracelsus]

This may prove fruitful: http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27785

[enquirewithin]

Originally Posted by EntheogenicTruth

SWIM is considering an IM administration of a vial of ket. maybe this weekend... can any swiy suggest a good dosage? bout 60 kgs he is

My little pony suggests starting off with 50 mg...

[Metomni]

So what would SWIY say to someone very VERY interested in ketamine, but interested in being introduced to it at a less intense level for the first administration? Not only would it decrease the chance of a bad experience, but it would allow SWIM to become acquainted with the substance before diving deep into it's depths.

[Lettish]

Where are the best locations on the body to IM?

[ThirdEyeFloond]

Originally Posted by Lettish

Where are the best locations on the body to IM?

SWIM prefers thigh, buttocks and deltoid, in that order.

Edit: He also prefers 25G (x 25mm) needles for IM, although he has never seen it happen he has heard that thinner needles suited for IV might break in muscles. 25G is thin enough to penetrate skin tissue etc. without much pain so he sees no reason to use 28G as someone mentioned.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Ty for info, Lettish's SWIM

[Beltane]

Originally Posted by JapanHorrorUncut

SWIMs friends both were shooting large amounts, several shots. Breathing stopped and noone was around to take them to hospital, thus death. They both shot H too but not on that day. I'm not sure if that lead to their death or not. Too young too die too

This story is highly suspect. The LD50, or Lethal Dose, for Ketamine is listed on several sites as follows:

LD50 (IPR-MUS): 400 mg/kg, LD50 (IVN-MUS): 77 mg/kg

SWIM can't find what IPR-MUS and IVN-MUS are, but let's take the lower number. A 160 pound man is is 73 kg. 73 * 77 = 5621 mg. or 5.6 grams! That's over 5 1/2 10ml bottles of 100mg/ml Ketamine. SWIM doesn't believe a person could inject that much Ketamine, even if they were determined to do so.

Also, depending on where you look, you'll find different info on whether or not Ketamine depresses respiratory function. For the most part, the sites that state it depresses respiratory function are anti-drug sites. In actuality, it can have either a stimulant or depressive effect depending on different factors.

On the Wikipedia page under Repiratory it's says 'Partial depressant/stimulant.' It goes on to state, 'The effect of ketamine on the respiratory and circulatory systems is different from that of other anaesthetics. When used at anaesthetic doses, it will usually stimulate rather than depress the circulatory system.'

Erowid states 'Ketamine is an anaesthetic used primarily for veterinary purposes. Ketamine blocks nerve paths without depressing respiratory and circulatory functions...'

drugs.com sheds some light stating, 'Although respiration is frequently stimulated, severe depression of respiration or apnea may occur following rapid intravenous administration of high doses of Ketamine.'

After researching this thoroughly in collecting info for the Ketamine Wiki page, SWIM believes that in virtually every recreational context, Ketamine does NOT depress respiration. Contrary to what seems to be popular belief here.

The one case where it seems to have a depressive effect on respiration is in RAPID IV administration of HIGH DOSES. All three descriptors, rapid, IV and high doses are not common and should be deliberately avoided by recreational users.

SWIM has no theory as to what killed the individuals here mentioned, but is certain that it had little if anything directly to do with Ketamine.

EDIT: It should also be stated that the reason Ketamine is so widely used in developing nations and on the battlefield is that it is so safe. A big contributing factor to its overall safety is the fact that it does NOT depress respiratory and cardiovascular function.

- Beltane

Reputation Comments on this post:

Good post. Simple, clear and to the point...