#1 Horse Tranquilliser?

Myth #1 Ketamine is a horse tranquilliser

Read even the so called respectable news sources and its easy to see why this myth is so prevelant.

Reuters headlines say "UK bans animal drug Ketamine" [1] while the BBC headlines scream "Club 'horse' drug to be outlawed" [2]. The supposedly highbrow Telegraph informs its readers, "Horse tranquilliser 'club drug' to be banned". [3] Such headlines are not simply common in the British press. They are the norm.

In the Parlimentary debate on the new law banning ketamine Conservative MP Edward Garnier confidently informed the House that, "Ketamine is a 'new' chemical drug in that it is being used now by human beings rather than animals." [4]

This myth is spread by prohibitionists to scare people from taking the drug. It implies firstly that the drug is not meant to be used by humans and secondly that it is a particularly heavy kind of drug. "If its meant to tranquilise a horse what must it do to a person?" an uninformed reader may reasonably wonder. It might also give rise to concerns of safety standards; animal standards being less strict than those for humans.

Delve a little deeper to articles like those with headlines above and try to find what the relevence of horses or animals are and you won't find anything. Why? Because once you look at the facts such references actually suggest ketamine is a safe drug rather than one only suitable for animals.

Ketamine was invented in 1962 and its first use was not for not animals it was for humans. It was used to treat soldiers in the Vietnam war and has been used more widely since the 1970s. Medically it is regarded as a very safe anaesthetic because it does not depress respiration [5]. The margin between the amount needed to anesthetise and the amount needed to kill a person is wide hence it's safety. Because it was such a safe anaesthetic it was also found to be suitable for children, the elderly and animals.

References to horses and animals aren't direct lies but they are written in such a way that their purpose can only be to deliberately mislead and scare people about the drug.