World narcotics body adopts RP resolution on ketamine

The Vienna-based Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) has adopted a resolution sponsored by the Philippines and Thailand calling for a more stringent international regulation of ketamine, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

Philippine Ambassador to Vienna Linglingay Lacanlale said the two countries have called on governments around the world to effect legislation and other measures to control the use of ketamine, citing the widespread abuse of the substance in Asia and the US.

The Philippine Embassy in Vienna concurrently serves as the Philippine Mission to the United Nations Office in that city, which specializes in combating crime and the drug problem.

The widespread use of ketamine in Asia and the US has already caught the attention of the International Narcotics Control Board and the World Health Organization.

Ketamine is frequently used in medicine as an anesthetic and analgesic. A dissociative anesthetic, it was developed as an alternative to other agents which more easily engendered hallucinogenic effects and seizures and depressed the respiratory and circulatory systems. Higher dosages of ketamine, however, have been known to cause hallucinatory effects, and the compound has also increasingly been abused because of this property.

In her report to the DFA, Lacanlale said the Philippines was among the first countries to recognize the dangers posed by the substance and call for its control.

The Dangerous Drugs Board issued Board Regulation 3 on July 19, 2005, mandating the inclusion of ketamine in the Philippines’ list of dangerous drugs, It subjected ketamine to all regulatory and control measures provided under the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

At the annual meeting of the Heads of National Drug Law Enforcement Agencies held in Vietnam in November last year, then Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency director general Undersecretary Anselmo Avenido Jr. reported on the rising incidence of ketamine abuse and urged other governments to declare ketamine as a regulated substance without delay.

Apart from calling on governments to put the substance under control, the Philippine-Thai resolution also encouraged the international community to develop a system of import-export certificates to guard against diversion and trafficking.

The resolution also urged governments to share information on ketamine abuse and trafficking.

At the time of the resolution’s adoption by the CND, 20 other countries, including Colombia, Japan, Malaysia, and the US co-sponsored the resolution.