Survivors of life-threatening mishaps report having “out of body experiences (OOBEs)”, a sensation of floating outside one’s own body.
Latest substance of abuse ketamine hydrochloride is a veterinary anaesthetic
CHENNAI: Survivors of life-threatening mishaps report having “out of body experiences (OOBEs)”, a sensation of floating outside one’s own body. Vicky (name changed), a 21-year-old aspiring video jockey and a party-hopper in Mumbai and Chennai, experiences it almost every month — through the abuse of ketamine hydrochloride.
Also known as ket or K, ketamine (which comes as granules, white powder or a clear liquid) is slowly entering rave parties in metros, even as India emerges as a prime source of the latest substance of abuse in south-east Asia. As ket, a veterinary anaesthetic, is neither banned nor is it a scheduled drug, enforcement agencies are finding it tough to book cases under the narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances (NDPS) Act.
K, when injected, snorted or smoked, gives an OOBE or near-death experience for about an hour. “Partly because of the novel experience and partly because it is not very costly (Rs35,000/kg in India), ket is the latest drug on the rave-party circuit after hallucinogens such as ecstasy and gamma hydroxy butyrate.
“Smuggling of ketamine from India to Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong, where it is banned, is on the rise, as one kg of the substance picks up almost Rs10 lakh. Spill-over adds to abuse in India,” an intelligence source told DNA.
The chemical is not available over the counter, but procurement is not difficult since it is allowed to be sold to veterinarians and pharma cos. The directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) has seized about 200kg of ketamine valued at Rs20 crore in the international market since March last year, a majority of it from the Chennai zone.
“Chennai’s connectivity to south-east Asia makes it a sought-after transit point,” said a source.
The latest haul was on September 4, when 12 kg of the substance was found concealed in “wooden gift shields” and “wooden Bible stands” at an international courier agency in Chennai. Booked in the name of a Madurai-based company, the consignment was bound for Taipei, Taiwan. In March, the DRI seized 50 kg of Kuala Lumpur-bound ketamine from two passengers at Chennai Airport. The substance had been packed as detergent powder. Last March, 20 kg of ketamine concealed inside packets of flour and oats was seized at Thiruvananthapuram Airport from a passenger going to Colombo.
Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) south zone director S Davidson Devasirvatham said the NCB could not make seizures of ketamine since it is not covered under the NDPS Act, which specifies imprisonment of up to 20 yrs. Now cases are booked only under the customs Act for non-declaration or misdeclaration of consignments, an offence punishable with jail up to seven yrs.
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