As the nation’s veteran suicide epidemic rages on, marijuana remains classified as a Schedule 1 drug and unavailable from the VA, which same say is out of step with new drug approval

SARASOTA — This month’s decision by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to offer a psychedelic drug to treat post-traumatic stress disorder while marijuana remains off limits is leaving some stakeholders flummoxed amid the ongoing wave of veteran suicides.

Spravato, derived from the family of anesthetic drugs called ketamine and produced by a division of Johnson & Johnson, will be prescribed to VA clients on a case-by-case basis and administered as a nasal spray.

Ketamine variants have made headlines over the decades for their multiple roles as sedatives, recreational hallucinogens and for their impressive track records for mitigating suicidal depression. The Spravato version, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in March, requires patients to remain under professional observation for two hours following ingestion.

The addition of a new remedy for lowering military suicide rates at a moment when retired and active-duty personnel are killing themselves roughly 20.6 times a day was hailed as a milestone by VA Secretary Robert Wilkie. “We’re pleased to be able to expand options for veterans with depression who have not responded to other treatments,” he said in a statement. “It reflects our commitment to seek new ways to provide the best health care available for our nation’s veterans.”

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The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced the approval of a ketamine-based nasal spray for treating depression. Ketamine is a strong sedative and dissociative that has been used in the veterinary and medical fields since the 1960s, but it has also been known as a club drug for nearly just as long. The fact that this medication is a nasal spray is a bit ironic, considering that the drug was often snorted when used at parties.

Ketamine, also called escatimine — which has a reputation behind the scenes as a party drug, known as ‘Special K,’ for its sedative and sometimes hallucinatory effects — is currently most widely employed as a veterinary tranquilizer, though the Food and Drug Administration first approved human use in 1970.

United Kingdom — A number of Emergency Medical departments in Florida are taking an unconventional approach to dealing with aggressive patients high on flakka — they are arming paramedics with ketamine. Intramuscular ketamine injected into the patient’s thigh can sedate a patient within about one minute, without affecting the person’s respiratory system or heart rate. Many have observed the media panic over flakka, the synthetic stimulant, and wondered whether the hysteria has done more harm than good. With behavioural descriptors such as “zombie-like” and “deranged,” reported side effects of the drug include murderous rage, paranoia, extreme violence, screaming, streaking, and fleeing imaginary killers. A two-minute online search pulls up some scary videos; numerous reports of people arrested while reportedly high on the drug appear, as do stories of tens of deaths attributed to flakka-related overdoses.