Date rape drug used as painkiller

[lexifer]

Friday May 2, 08:55 AM
A notorious date rape drug is being used by paramedics because some patients find it a better painkiller than morphine.
The decision to use ketamine, which was also known as a party drug, followed a study by Auckland's Westpac rescue helicopter paramedics on 44 patients between January 2005 and last October.

St John Ambulance paramedics were also now using the drug and have trained about 160 staff throughout the country to administer it, The New Zealand Herald reported today.
Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust medical director Dr John Orton said ketamine superseded morphine in many situations.
"Certain pains are fairly easily manageable with morphine-type drugs, but the excruciating acute pain of acute injury is extremely hard to get on top of with morphine.
"We're talking about 10-tonne tractors rolled on top of people ... or typical quad bike idiots ... they flip it and they've got two broken legs below the knee pointing at right angles but otherwise they're uninjured.
"You've got to straighten these limbs out and splint them. If you try to do that without this sort of agent, it's horrible -- you cause excruciating discomfort. So to be able to do this in the field is a major bonus."
The use of ketamine outside a hospital environment was new, Dr Orton said.
There were some risks with the drugs but there were also risks with morphine.
"Ketamine has a very, very low risk profile in all those regards and you cannot say that about morphine," he told the newspaper.
"The risks and the downside are practically nil and the advantages are enormous."

http://nz.news.yahoo.com/080501/3/57j7.html

I absolutely hate how the only words that the media use to describe K is "date rape drug", (even though in this particular article they talk explicitly about medical usage, and yet they still call it a date rape drug). Any person with their own thoughts knows not only are there many uses for K but that "date rape" is not its primary use.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Good find, gracias.

[JefferyDFW]

Well you know that Ketamine originated in veterinary medicine to help with pain and tranquilizing for surgery.

[Panthers007]

Originally Posted by lexifer

I absolutely hate how the only words that the media use to describe K is "date rape drug", (even though in this particular article they talk explicitly about medical usage, and yet they still call it a date rape drug). Any person with their own thoughts knows not only are there many uses for K but that "date rape" is not its primary use.

That's the first time I've seen/heard of ketamine being called a "date-rape drug." It's looking like any drug people use for recreational purposes can be painted with this brush now. Which one will be next? "Ecstasy used as new date-rape drug! Rave's are orgy's of blood and perversion!" Or will it be marijuana (again)? "Pot-perverts de-flowering white virgin girls and boys with the Devil's Weed!"

Oh brother. What a crappy way to sell newspapers.

[AquafinaOrbit]

Well seems like good news to me. The more uses the drug has the more easily it should be for SWIM to find.

[entheogensmurf]

Does anyone have the figures which represent rape cases associated directly (and perhaps only) with ketamine drugging?

[FuBai]

This seems all back to front - ketamine was developed as an anesthetic before it ever entered recreation use. I saw a guy with both arms trapped in between two rollers in a machine who was anesthatised with ketamine so they could take his hands off - they couldn't access his air-ways because of the way he was trapped (standing up, face into the machine) and they needed an anasthetic which wouldn't require oxegenation. I know that ketamine used to be used as a field painkiller/anasthetic - in fact I'm pretty sure it replaced PCP for a time. What they really should be saying is anasthetic/pain killer used as a date-rape drug, not the other way around.

[TMM]

They seem surprised that it wasn't originally intended as a date rape drug.

[UpAllNiteOCXTC]

yeahh...it makes swim kinda irritated when people say ecstasy is a date rape drug too. Swim thinks rape could certainly happen, but thats not what she is thinking about when she does it. Swim could see a sober person giving someone X and taking advantage while remaining sober, but would never label x as a date rape drug..

are there even that many cases?

[ihavequestions]

lately swim has been reading and has found than many drugs are being labeled as "date rape" drugs. k, k-pins, E, GHB, alcohol. you name it and it has the potential for it.

in wims opinion date rape is NOT when a person takes advantage of a drunk or intoxicated person. by definition rape is a forced physical act or when the victim cannot fight back and say no. in other words its a struggle or the victim is totaly out.

getting taken advantage of is not rape. its irresponsibilty.

[UpAllNiteOCXTC]

with all the awareness today you'd think people would be more conscientious and not make careless decisions such as leaving a drink at the bar...etc

[cosmicruler]

Ketamine is also used as an anaesthetic(spell?) in new zealand hospitals for babies and elderly...so swim doesnt really see the big issue with the ambulance officers etc having access to it now...in fact sounds like a fucking good idea.

[chinpokomaster]

Well Rohypnol is often cited as a date-rape drug and that's just a benzo... so are doctors that prescribe valium dishing out date-rape drugs?

It's all nonsense, anyway. Knives are used to cut cheese but the same type of knife may be used to murder someone. Conclusion? Things have more than one use.

[moda00]

Yes, the media has taken the concept of rape drugs and is running with it.. add the label "date rape" and it is an automatic headliner, no questions asked.

Ketamine is definitely an effective anesthetic; as people have pointed out, that is what it is.... I've read of one case of ketamine reportedly being used as a date rape drug along with a cocktail/combo of I think alcohol and GHB? I'll try to find it. But uhh if one single use in combination with other drugs makes it a date rape drug then I am just not sure what to think.

The article should be titled "anesthetic used as an...anesthetic." But there's no story there...

Saying things like this trivializes rape in my opinion.
Rather than preventing violence or educating the public in any way, it simply borrows and takes advantage of the sensational and violent concept of rape to demonize a fairly harmless anesthetic disassociative used on pets, kids, and old folks (with a very small minority of reported negative effects in the medical setting, actually)