The Trouble with Ketamine

Abstract

<p>From the late 1990s through the mid-2000s, ketamine emerged as the most popular intoxicant in Hong Kong – a remarkable feature given that its consumption, globally, has been generally confined to subcultures associated with an edgy reputation for out-of-body experiences. This paper seeks to understand why ketamine, despite its global consumption patterns, came to dominate the local scene and focuses on the emergence and shifts in settings, its appeal to users, and the governmental response. We trace Hong Kong’s history with intoxicants to answer this question. Opium played a critical role in its colonial governance. It was enjoyed across social classes in adult social settings until its consumption was criminalized in 1946, at which point heroin came to dominate the market. Hong Kong’s slide into the heroin era was long-lived, concentrated among marginalized men who used and experienced the drug in isolation. Its’ appeal lay in its sedative qualities to temporarily suspend one’s troubles in time and space, and instead, submerge into a tranquil sleep. Over half a century later, heroin’s dominance waned with the rise of psychoactive drug use (ecstasy and ketamine) among young people in the context of a burgeoning night-time economy. Hong Kong’s control strategy resulted in the closure of this scene, and a diversification in consumption settings. With this shift, ketamine became the dominant drug with young consumers using in public and private settings. While the setting for use was often in a group context amongst friends, the intoxicating experience was individually felt. Its’ appeal lay in its hallucinogenic qualities whereby one temporarily transcends time and space to float with a sense of uninhibited freedom. Ketamine’s popularity at that specific moment in time, we argue, lies in tracing and comparing the use and appeal of heroin and ketamine in the context of social change in Hong Kong.</p>