How is ketamine different from cocaine?

Answer 1

Ketamine and Cocaine are both powerful drugs with medical and recreational uses. On the street both drugs are usually seen as a white crystalline powder and both can be snorted. Despite these similarities in appearance and method of ingestion the two drugs are very different in both effect and in they way they act on the brain. Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic pharmaceutical used legally to cause sedation and anesthesia (to knock people out before surgery). It is used illegally as a hallucinogen. Ketamine is not a typical anesthetic, it can cause more than sedation. At sub-anesthetic doses it causes hallucinations and sometimes out of body experiences (a "K-Hole") which can be euphoric for some and frightening for others or even the same person at different times. Ketamine is an NMDA receptor antagonist (it binds to NMDA receptors in the brain). Ketamine is in the same family of drugs as Dextromethorphan (DXM, Robitussin) and Phencyclidine (PCP, Angel Dust).

Cocaine is a powerful stimulant drug found in the leaves of the Coca plant. It is extracted from these leaves and purified many times, however it is often mixed with other drugs such as Lidocaine or Procaine (these numb the skin like Cocaine but cause no stimulation) in order for dealers to make larger profits. Cocaine is a Tropane alkaloid and is purely a stimulant with local anesthetic effects, it provides the user with lots of energy and will numb any skin it touches. Cocaine increases levels of Dopamine (the "reward/pleasure chemical"), Serotonin and Norepinephrine (Noradrenaline) in several brain regions. Cocaine releases more Norepinephrine than Dopamine and more Dopamine than Serotonin. Cocaine, unlike Ketamine causes no hallucinations unless it is used habitually, and those hallucinations are from psychosis. Cocaine increases heart rate and blood pressure, it can cause short lasting euphoria or anxiety, increase talkativeness, ego inflation and increased sexuality.