Dissociatives
Ketamine, PCP, DXM, nitrous oxide — substances that produce dissociation through NMDA antagonism.
Latest reporting
Ketamine Got Respectable. It Didn't Get Safe.
Ketamine clinics went from fewer than 100 to well over 1,500 in a decade, DEA enforcement is finally catching up, and recreational misuse is climbing alongside it. What that means if you're in recovery and someone offers you ketamine therapy.
Ketamine Works Because It Unmoors You From Yourself — And Almost Nobody Is Watching How It's Sold
Ketamine clinics grew from under 100 to over 1,500 in a decade, built on a telemedicine waiver about to lapse and a psychiatric use the FDA has never approved. Here's what dissociation actually is, why it may be the mechanism, and who's checking on you.
Ketamine's Boom Just Met Its Bill, and Nitrous Oxide Is Getting the Bill Too
The FDA warned 14 online ketamine sellers, Texas moved to ban at-home IV ketamine, and states are banning retail nitrous oxide — all while young ketamine users show up in urology wards with permanent bladder damage. One story, not four.
Through eight lenses
Science
NMDA receptor antagonism (ketamine, PCP, DXM), nitrous as N2O NMDA + opioid.
Biology
Dissociation at moderate doses; K-hole at higher; ketamine bladder toxicity with chronic recreational use; B12 deficiency and neuropathy from nitrous.
Psychology
Dissociative experience; emerging ketamine use disorder pattern; the therapy/recreation confusion.
Ketamine Works Because It Unmoors You From Yourself — And Almost Nobody Is Watching How It's Sold
Sep 3The Drug Being Fast-Tracked as a Depression Cure Is Quietly Costing Some People Their Bladders — and No One in the System Saw It Coming
Aug 2She Emailed a Stranger 'I Think I'm Dying.' He Wrote Back With the Only Help That Existed.
Jul 13
Policy
Ketamine Schedule III; esketamine (Spravato) FDA-approved for TRD; nitrous legal and lightly regulated; PCP Schedule II.
Trends
Ketamine clinics exploding; WhipIt+ canister culture; DXM abuse among adolescents declining.
Treatment
Ketamine use disorder — sparse evidence, harm-reduction-heavy approach.
Harm Reduction
Nitrous B12 supplementation, ketamine urinary-tract monitoring, don't mix dissociatives with depressants.