A WHOLE NEW KIND OF “K” RATION

If it’s good enough for ravers, it’s good enough for G.I.s. That’s the think­ing, appar­ently, behind the Army’s deci­sion to test the ani­mal tran­quil­izer Ketamine as away to soothe injured sol­diers.
The drug known in the clubs has “Special K” has been reduc­ing party-​​goers to gur­gling blobs for more than a decade. This year, the Army has been run­ning final, phase III Food and Drug Administration tri­als on a quarter-​​dose nasal inhaler of “K,” to see if it can sub­sti­tute for mor­phine.
“With mor­phine, the soldier’s just gorfed, he can’t do any­thing,” Col. Bob Vandre, of the Army’s Medical Research and Materiel Command, told me as I stopped by his booth — a mock MASH tent — at the Army Science Conference. “With this, he can drive his truck, or shoot his gun.“
Col. Vandre said he knew full well that Ketamine “had been snorted by peo­ple at rave par­ties” and that “it makes you kind of weird, sort of like acid.“
However, he promised, the military’s dose of “K” would not have the same effects.
“It doesn’t make you weird,” Col. Vandre said. “But it does reduce pain.“
The Ketamine snort is one of a num­ber of novel treat­ments Col. Vandre was show­ing to conference-​​goers. Further up the pipeline was a tiny bot­tle filled even smaller bub­bles, just two microns across. The bub­bles in this dode­ca­flu­o­ropen­tane emul­sion swelled to double-​​size when they were in the lungs. And once they started flow­ing to the rest of the body, the bub­bles dis­trib­uted oxy­gen more effi­ciently than nor­mal red blood cells, Col. Vandre claimed. 40 cubic cen­time­ters just eight tea­spoons was as good at deliv­er­ing oxy­gen as all of the blood flow­ing inside a per­son.
“We’ve taken mice, drained out all of their blood, and replaced it with a saline solu­tion and this,” Col. Vandre said. “They walk around like nothing’s hap­pened.“
At least for a half-​​hour or so. That’s when the bub­bles begin to lose their fizz, and the mouse needs its blood back, if it’s going to live.
THERE’S MORE, DUDE: Back in ’64, the Army decided it’d be a good idea to give 60 of its sol­diers inhal­able LSD. Here is what they found.
AND MORE: “Ketamine is already FDA approved in humans as an anes­thetic drug and has been for years,” reader 5911674 notes over on the Defense Tech forum. That’s right: in kids, “K” has been okayed for, among other things, “induc­tion of gen­eral anes­the­sia” and “seda­tion in the inten­sive care unit.” 5911674 is also right that I should’ve men­tioned this before. Good catch.

December 2nd, 2004 | Bizarro | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.