For the past two periods in health we’ve been working on an assessment about medicine and health issues, for my assessment I chose the health issue, arrhythmia

4 Ways you can be safe with medicine are

• Storing it correctly
• check expiration date
• Keep out of reach of children
• Take the medication safely

Some ways teenagers can be safe with medicine are

• Asking parents before you take medicine
• Take only your prescribed medicine unless it’s over-the-counter
• Read directions
• keep track of what time, and how many and when you’re taking medicine
• Only take the suggested dose

Ketamine is a quick-acting anaesthetic that I used on humans as a sedative typically for a minor surgery, used on animals as a tranquilizer. At high doses, it can cause intoxication and hallucination similar to LSD. People who are addicted to ketamine can become mentally reliant on the drug to feel good, deal with stress and get through with life. People may become delusional, may hallucinate, and can lose their sense of reality, at a high dose users may experience movement problems, body numbness, and slowed breathing, overdosing on ketamine can make you stop breathing and cause death. Long-term effects can include panic attacks, memory issues, depression, liver damage, developmental issues, increased risk of UTIs, psychosis, and agitation.

Ketamine has many street names such as K, special K, vitamin K, bump, cat valium, Kit Kat, super acid, and purple. There are probably more street names for ketamine that we just don’t know of.

Ketamine can be used in multiple different ways and forms such as, snorted, swallowed, smoked, or even injected. People who use ketamine often use it along with other drugs such as Ecstasy, Cocaine, or sometimes they sprinkle it on marijuana blunts.

On average, ketamine kicks in after being snorted and after being taken orally, taking around 15 minutes to 20 minutes. The buzz usually lasts 30 minutes to an hour, but that depends on how much you take. Once the drug wears off you may feel down and in a low mood for a few days after using the drug. Generally, ketamine can be detectable several days after taking the drug by a urine sample. Still, it really depends on how much of the drug has been taken and what detecting kit is being used.

The drug looks like a clear liquid when in medicine form, a grainy white or brown crystal powder when sold in the streets, and can come in tablets which is the least common. The smell and taste is bitter and unpleasant.

People are influenced to using ketamine in many different ways, it could be that you influenced yourself by wanting to know what it feels like, could’ve been an interpersonal influence from a small group of people such as your friends, relatives, people around you etc. You could also be influenced by a large societal group, such as the law, places, social media, groups, etc. When being influenced into using something you need to be smart and think about what’s going to happen to you and if it’s a smart idea, most things you’ll need to push through and say “no” to.

There are definitely negatives to using this drug long term and short term, but there aren’t many positives to using the drug. Short-term negative effects when using ketamine consist of, visual and auditory hallucinations which can affect your well-being by possibly making you think you’re going crazy, anxiety and panic This can affect your well-being because anxiety and panic are never good for your well-being, and confusion and clumsiness. Positive short-term effects of ketamine include, feeling happy and relaxed, and lowered pain sensitivity. (positive and negative) Long-term effects of using ketamine can consist of, flashbacks which can affect your well-being by pretty much repeating a traumatic memory in your mind again and again, needing to use more to get the same effect, this can obviously affect your well-being by being at risk of overdoing and then possibly turning into a vegetable if you don’t die from overdosing, financial, work and social problems this can affect your wellbeing by being at risk of losing your job from underperformance, and you could lose all of your friends from being rude etc. This can all affect your P.I.S (personal, interpersonal, and societal) by not having the social skills any more people disliking you, people judging you due to using ketamine, and slowly losing yourself and becoming disconnected due to using the drug.

The effects on your well-being due to ketamine all link up to affecting your physical then your mental and emotional well-being, for example, if you were to become addicted to ketamine your whole body would change in a way thats definitely would not be healthy/good for you, when addicted to ketamine people tend to take larger doses of the drug to get the same effect from when they first started using it therefore at a higher risk of overdosing which affects your mental and emotional wellbeing, failing to fulfil tasks including work, school,  household etc, affecting your physical wellbeing by not getting up and doing the tasks that keep you slightly active, being unaware of your social actions (being rude) which can affect your social wellbeing, and developing a mental/spiritual problem from withdrawals of the drug which can affect your spiritual wellbeing.

In New Zealand you cannot use ketamine unless it is prescribed for you by a doctor, it is classified as a class C drug and is illegal to use irresponsibly in New Zealand. If you were caught having/using the drug you may face up to a $1,000 fine and/or up to 8 years imprisonment.

Personally, my advice to people aged 13-18 to keep safe and away from ketamine is to always use your voice to be safe at parties or with people you aren’t familiar with and to always think on your feet and not be stupid.