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Mind-altering ketamine becomes latest pain treatment, despite little research or regulation

https://news.yahoo.com/mind-altering-ketamine-becomes-pain-135754045.html

Excerpt:

As U.S. doctors scale back their use of opioid painkillers, a new option for hard-to-treat pain is taking root: ketamine, the decades-old surgical drug that is now a trendy psychedelic therapy.

Prescriptions for ketamine have soared in recent years, driven by for-profit clinics and telehealth services offering the medication as a treatment for pain, depression, anxiety and other conditions. The generic drug can be purchased cheaply and prescribed by most physicians and some nurses, regardless of their training.

With limited research on its effectiveness against pain, some experts worry the U.S. may be repeating mistakes that gave rise to the opioid crisis: overprescribing a questionable drug that carries significant safety and abuse risks.

When Gulur and her colleagues tracked 300 patients receiving ketamine at Duke, more than a third of them reported significant side effects that required professional attention, such as hallucinations, troubling thoughts and visual disturbances.

Ketamine also didn’t result in lower rates of opioid prescribing in the months following treatment, a common goal of therapy, according to Gulur. Her research is under review for medical journal publication.

Ketamine was approved more than 50 years ago as a powerful anesthetic for patients undergoing surgery. At lower doses, it can produce psychedelic, out-of-body experiences, which made it a popular club drug in the 1990s. With its recent adoption for pain, patients are increasingly encountering those same effects.

Daniel Bass, of Southgate, Kentucky, found the visual disturbances “horrifying.” His doctors prescribed four- to six-hour IV infusions of ketamine for pain related to a rare bone and joint disorder. Seated in a bare hospital room with no stimulation or guidance on the drug’s psychological effects, Bass says he felt “like a lab rat.”

Still, he credits ketamine with reducing his pain during the year that he received twice-a-month infusions.

“No matter how horrific an experience is, if it allows me to be more functional, I will do it,” Bass said.

.....There is more evidence for ketamine’s use against depression than for pain. In 2019, the FDA approved a ketamine-related chemical developed by Johnson & Johnson for severe depression. The drug, Spravato, is subject to strict FDA safety rules on where and how it can be administered by doctors.

.....While the science behind ketamine is murky, the business model is clear: Physicians can purchase ketamine for less than $100 a vial and charge $500 to $1,500 per infusion.

The recent boom has been fueled, in part, by venture capital investors. Another set of consulting businesses offer to help doctors set up new clinics.

A blog post from one, Ketamine Startup, lists “Five reasons you should open a ketamine clinic,” including: “You want to be your own boss” and “You want to take control of your money-making ability.”

The clinics are facing increasing competition from telehealth services like MindBloom and Joyous, which connect potential patients with physicians who can prescribe ketamine remotely and send it through the mail.

In May, federal regulators were scheduled to roll back the COVID-era policy that allowed online prescribing of high-risk drugs like ketamine and opioids. But the Drug Enforcement Administration, facing backlash for telehealth companies and physicians, agreed to extend the flexible approach through 2024.

The current landscape is a “wild west,” said Dr. Samuel Wilkinson, a Yale University psychiatrist who prescribes both Spravato and ketamine for depression. U.S. physicians have “quite a bit of latitude” to prescribe drugs for unapproved, or off-label, uses.

.....When used at high doses, ketamine can cause bladder damage, sometimes seen in people who use the drug recreationally. Far less is known about the neurological effects of long-term use.

.....Last month, the FDA warned doctors and patients against compounded versions of ketamine, including lozenges and pills, saying the agency does not regulate their contents and cannot assure their safety.
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Desperate for an alternative to opioids, that is as effective, they turn to off-label uses for drugs. Sounds like Russian roulette to me.

Using humans as lab rats for off-label uses of ketamine. Sounds like the covid shots’ research./s

Wait until users start falling into a K-hole which exacerbates their mental issues. Back in the day Special ‘K’
was a plentiful party drug. Never used it but saw the effects on users’ mental awareness. For the most part made them helpless and wasn’t pretty. Had to babysit them until the drug wore off.

Physicians will use it until the next cure all medicine is ‘discovered’ for off-label uses that enirch them.

ERO San Antonio Removes Known Mexican Drug Cartel Leader Wanted In Mexico For Organized Crime

https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ero-san-antonio-removes-known-mexican-drug-cartel-leader-wanted-mexico-organized

Excerpt:

Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) San Antonio removed an illegal alien noncitizen wanted by authorities in Mexico for organized crime, money laundering and illegal possession of firearms. Deportation officers from ERO San Antonio and ERO Harlingen removed Oscar Arturo Arriola Marquez, 54, from the United States to Mexico on Nov. 1.

Arriola was the presumed leader of the Arriola Marquez cartel and was once one of the world’s most wanted fugitives.

“Individuals who commit crimes of this magnitude in their home countries will find no refuge in the United States,” said ERO San Antonio Interim Field Office Director Garrett Ripa. “We will not sit idly by and allow our communities to be overrun with criminals”

.....ERO conducts removals of individuals without a lawful basis to remain in the United States, including at the order of immigration judges with the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). EOIR is a separate entity from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Immigration judges in these courts make decisions based on the merits of each individual case, determining if a noncitizen is subject to a final order of removal or eligible for certain forms of relief from removal.

As one of ICE’s three operational directorates, ERO is the principal federal law enforcement authority in charge of domestic immigration enforcement. ERO’s mission is to protect the homeland through the arrest and removal of those who undermine the safety of U.S. communities and the integrity of U.S. immigration laws, and its primary areas of focus are interior enforcement operations, management of the agency’s detained and non-detained populations, and repatriation of noncitizens who have received final orders of removal. ERO’s workforce consists of more than 7,700 law enforcement and non-law enforcement support personnel across 25 domestic field offices and 208 locations nationwide, 30 overseas postings, and multiple temporary duty travel assignments along the border.
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Could ERO be used by DJT, when he returns, to remove the illegal aliens? None of the millions have a legal basis to be in the U.S. One tool for accomplishing his stated immigration objectives. Food for thought.