Logo image
Back
Ketamine Injection among High Risk Youth: Preliminary Findings from New York City
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Ketamine Injection among High Risk Youth: Preliminary Findings from New York City

Stephen E. Lankenau and Michael C. Clatts
Journal of drug issues, v 32(3), pp 893-905
Jul 2002
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/002204260203200311
PMID: 17440604
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc1852470View
Accepted (AM)Open Access (License Unspecified),  Open

Abstract

Ketamine, a synthetic drug commonly consumed by high risk youth, produces a range of experiences, including sedation, dissociation, and hallucinations. While ketamine is more typically sniffed, we describe a small sample of young ketamine injectors (n=25) in New York City and highlight risks associated with this emerging type of injection drug use. Our findings indicate that the injection practices, injection groups, and use norms surrounding ketamine often differ from other injection drug use: intramuscular injections were more common than intravenous injections; injection groups were often large; multiple injections within a single episode were common; bottles rather than cookers were shared; and the drug was often obtained for free. Our findings suggest that the drug injection practices exercised by ketamine injectors place them at risk for bloodborne pathogens, such as HIV, HBV, and HCV. We conclude that ketamine injectors represent an emerging, though often hidden, population of injection drug users, particularly among high risk, street-involved youth.

Metrics

12 Record Views
28 citations in Web of Science
35 citations in Scopus

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

InCites Highlights

Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:

Web of Science research areas
Substance Abuse
Logo image