Cyprus’s medical and scientific community is sounding the alarm following the discovery and seizure of 390 kilograms of illegal ketamine from homes and a warehouse in Limassol, a case in connection with which four suspects are currently in custody.
Speaking on the “Alpha News” program, Nikolas Dietis, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Cyprus, explained that ketamine is a synthetic drug that acts primarily on the human brain and on specific protein. As he said, it is a substance that “interferes with and disrupts the way we perceive sensory information—such as temperature, colors, and space, and replaces it with our perception of ourselves in space and time.”
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Dr. Dietis noted that ketamine’s effects result in the disconnection and distortion of the sense of time in the human body, leading some users to describe the experience as an “out-of-body experience” or that they “feel themselves leaving their bodies.”
The Professor of Pharmacology emphasized that ketamine is extremely “useful in science as an anesthetic” and that, when used properly and in a pure form, it is an extremely safe medication in psychiatry for treating depression. At the same time, ketamine is abused by people seeking psychoactive experiences, though this has dramatic consequences for the body, as it causes addiction and dependence.
Mr. Dietis referred to it as a “very dangerous substance” and cited as an example the death of the internationally renowned Hollywood actor Matthew Perry, who appeared to have been using ketamine and was found dead in his bathroom from drowning.
READ ALSO: How the 390 kg of ketamine arrived: Where it was loaded, what the YKAN intelligence reports said, and where it was headed
