The drug ketamine has drawn renewed interest as New York state prosecutors announced they would reopen an investigation into an alleged gang rape at a Cornell University fraternity house.
A female student identified as “Jane Doe” in a civil lawsuit filed last month alleges she was raped by several men in 2024 while drinking alcohol and being forced to use ketamine.
The controlled substance is approved by the Food and Drug Administration as an anesthetic to induce unconsciousness and block pain during surgery.
But it can also cause hallucinations and disassociation from one’s surroundings, and has long been abused as a party and date rape drug, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Research has shown that mixing ketamine with other substances such as alcohol can be dangerous, potentially leading to problems including respiratory depression, where breathing becomes dangerously slow or shallow.
Ketamine comes in both liquid and powder form, and Jane Doe alleges she was forced to snort a white, powdery substance that she was told was ketamine.
The drug has been associated in recent years with high-profile figures such as Elon Musk, who said it was prescribed to him to treat depression.
The actor Matthew Perry died in 2023 from the effects of ketamine. At the time, he was undergoing ketamine infusion therapy, an increasingly common practice, in which the drug is administered under a health care provider’s supervision to address mental health problems, such as severe anxiety and PTSD.
A study published in 2025, based on data from 2015 to 2022, found that recreational ketamine use in the United States has grown at a rate faster than its rise as a treatment for depression.
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The post What is ketamine, the drug at the center of the alleged rape at Cornell? appeared first on Washington Post.
