United Nations turns down bid for global ketamine ban; Veterinary doctors appeal to protect ketamine access

The United Nations has turned down for now, pressure from China to enact what could amount to a worldwide ban on ketamine, as many in the medical profession such as veterinarians and physicians work to maintain use of the drug.
The Chinese government for some years has attempted to bring ketamine under more absolute global control due to recreational abuse in the country. How such limitations might impact U.S. ketamine supplies is unknown, though many presume that any international regulatory action would reduce its availability.
Ketamine currently isn’t regulated under the Convention of Psychotropic Substances, a treaty set in 1971 as an international control system for the manufacture, distribution, transportation and utilization of medicines. The World Health Organization considers ketamine to be an “essential medicine," a category of drugs that WHO officials consider to be relatively cheap, safe, effective and necessary to satisfy the health-care requirements of large populations. The job of checking and monitoring ketamine is left to individual nations.
But China wants to change that.
Ketamine has been utilized as an anesthetic in human and veterinary medicine for at least 50 years. For decades, it was manufactured by drug firms, but that’s changed with innovative ketamine laboratories proliferating in China, feeding what many consider to be widespread. Ketamine reportedly has come to be the most abused drug in Asia, known for its powerful dissociative and hallucinogenic end results.
Medical doctors say that recreational abuse of ketamine doesn’t dilute the medicine’s relevance to health care. Medicinal ketamine is greatly depended upon in many lower and middle income countries since it does not depress a patient’s circulation or respiration throughout surgical procedures. That means it can be administered without an electricity supply, oxygen and other support systems that are required when administering other anesthetics.
Globally,veterinary doctors  utilize ketamine as an anesthetic and adjunct to pain control, and it remains a important drug used to sedate horses.
Some time around December, World Health Organization officials refused China’s fourth appeal since 2006 to organize ketamine under the Convention. The medical advantages of ketamine is greater than potential harm from recreational use as reported by Marie-Paule Kieny, assistant-administrator General for Health Systems and Innovation at WHO. The assistant-administrator also said that controlling ketamine internationally could reduce access to essential and emergency surgery, which would add up to a public health catastrophe in countries where no affordable alternatives exist.
The World Health Organization took its recommendation within the month of March to the UN, which has the last comment on Convention issues, where it met by yet another appeal from the Chinese government to force ketamine limitations.

The American Veterinary Medical Association was among many professional factions that campaigned against China's proposal for international scheduling.
“Ketamine is a key component of veterinary medical sedative and pain management procedures globally, and any regulatory action that limits its availability to the veterinary profession would seriously affect animal health and welfare,” AVMA CEO Dr. Ron Dehaven wrote in a March 10 note to U.S.A Embassy executives in Vienna, where the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs was gathered.
The UN commission absolutely refused China's appeal based on the advice that it could deprive millions of a much needed anesthetic medication. WHO executives pointed out that ketamine already is regulated in most countries. In the United States, for instance, its distribution is totally controlled by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
The UN's decision doesn't mean China won't keep pressing forward. If it does, the World Small Animal Veterinary Association wants to be prepared. The organization has created an appeal to make sure that ketamine remains viewed as an “essential medicine.”
At least 7,700 people have signed since the appeal went live in month of March. WSAVA President-elect Dr. Walt Ingwersen hopes to collect 10,000 signatures.
He said that they are hoping to keep it alive, active and dynamic. He also mentioned that this will eventually come back … and when they are asked about ketamine’s global veterinary relevance and importance, they are able to say that 10,000 people think this is a relevant medicine. This is vital medicine.