Canberra ketamine: new recreational drug discovered at test site

by Team Inc.

drug ketamine

Scientists at the Australian National University have discovered a mysterious new recreational drug they've never seen before in Australia, which they've dubbed "CanKet."

A new recreational drug called CanKet, similar to ketamine but with unknown side effects, has been found by scientists at a pill testing site in Australia.

New drug found in Canberra

CanTEST, a personal drug screening service, was launched in Canberra in August. Since then, nearly 200 people have brought in their recreational drugs for analysis and advice based on the results. Some people choose to throw away their drugs if the agency discovers they are laced with harmful or unexpected substances.

An employee at CanTEST, Associate Prof Malcolm McCleod, said someone brought a small plastic bag containing crystals and powder. Although it was very similar to ketamine, it was not. Ketamine is a potent anesthetic usually snorted or injected to give a high, with common side effects such as nausea, vomiting, hallucination, high blood pressure, and confusion.

“We have some techniques in place to test for ketamine and we can be really confident in the results. It was clear that this was not ketamine, but a ketamine-like substance," says McLeod of the Australian National University.

CanKet and New Psychoactive Substances (NPS)

“That's why we called it 'CanKet', as in Canberra ketamine. To our knowledge, this is the first detection of a new drug by a drug control agency anywhere in the world. Nothing is known about its clinical effects on consumers, and as it is something new, we urge caution. You can make quite small changes to a particular drug and see some pretty dramatic changes in its effects.”

The teams of the Australian National University and CanTEST shared their findings with ACT Health, as well as the UN Office of Drug Control and the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction, which had never seen this substance before.

A spokesperson for the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission said unknown illegal substances, collectively known as "new psychoactive substances' (NPS), are a global problem. Some substances are potentially lethal, even in small doses. Often users are not aware of the precise content, which is always dangerous. The fabrics are often imported after purchases via the internet.

Testing for public health

MacLeod said more research needs to be done to understand CanKet, its effects and where it comes from. “My suspicion is that this is produced abroad in a jurisdiction where the laws surrounding the production of such chemicals are not yet banned.”

“I think it's important that we keep the community safe and this shows the value of surveillance services. We have been able to find a new substance and provide people with information in a timely manner, while government agencies and drug laws may take a while to be up to date.”

“Services like these can help reduce the potential harms of drug use, showing that testing can play a valuable role in monitoring the drug market.”

Source: theguardian.com (EN)

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