The Guardian published an alarming first hand account of ketamine addiction this week, in which an A grade student described a horrific descent into addiction involving ‘k cramps’ and constant urination problems.

“I developed a stoop because my penis was always burning. One day, on a train, I had my first cramp attack; I thought my lung had collapsed,” David Eggins recalled, describing his first attack of ‘K cramps’. “I still didn’t stop. The cramps got worse, the blood and mucus began to appear frequently in my urine and I had to pee every 20 minutes,” he recalled.

His symptoms matched those described by the Albert Hofmann Foundation in an article posted on respected psychedelic information website Lycaeum.org which also warns that users risk convulsions and the danger of becoming ‘so objective that you don’t care if you live or die’.

“This can lead to what have been called ‘automaticities’ – automatic, unintentional physical activities, rather as if the body keeps going while the mind is elsewhere,” the article cautions, “In this state people can walk into walls (or under cars) – and it doesn’t help that Ketamine severely impairs coordination.”

Skrufff contributor Larry Tee said he explicitly identified with the Guardian’s headline ‘Enslaved by K’. “Enslaved? Definitely! After surviving addictions to pot, coke, alcohol, rohypnols, meth and more, ketamine ultimately broke me,” Larry told Skrufff. “Of course I am grateful to ketamine because I love being clean and I might never have gotten totally clean had I not fallen so far into the black rabbit hole of ketamine,” he added.

The electroclash founder and nowadays globe-trotting uber-successful producer/DJ also recognized the K user’s physical symptoms saying ‘yes, me and the kids in my loft with ketamine habits at the time all had a really difficult time peeing.’

“One especially small boy named Matt, regularly suffered from extended stomach pains and peeing problems and then overdosed on heroin once the ketamine supply dried up. To me, that is the main problem with ketamine; there aren’t many places to go after you are addicted to it and heroin is often the replacement. I miss Matty,” said Larry.

“Though I can’t say negative anything to people that want to experiment with ketamine without being hypocritical,” he concluded. “What would I say? Have fun! But I also let anyone that has a problem with drugs know that at any time, that they can find assistance at NA (Narcotics Anonymous) worldwide.”

Ironically ketamine was used to treat alcoholics in Russia in the 80s under a practise known as ‘Death-Rebirth Psychotherapy’ which had an unusual impact beyond the confines of the clinic, study chief Igor Kungurtsev reported soon after.

‘About one year after the study began, a small group of strange-looking people arrived at our clinic,” he recounted, “They called themselves magicians, and said that they sensed in their meditations and magic practices that in our hospital some people were throwing other souls into the ‘astral plane’. We described our work and showed them the hospital. They approved,” he added. (The Albert Hofmann Foundation)