Ketamine

The announcement came two years after the fatal arrest of a Black man in suburban Denver who had been injected with the drug.

Ketamine is known as the party drug sometimes called Special K. But under a doctor’s guidance, the drug is also helping some people struggling with severe depression. Yusuf Omar of Hashtag Our Stories goes to a clinic to talk to a doctor administering the treatment and a patient who swears by its benefits.

A group of Colorado anesthesiologists wants paramedics to stop injecting people with a powerful sedative when police believe suspects are out of control until officials finish a review launched nearly a year after the death of Elijah McClain, a Black man put in a stranglehold by officers and injected with ketamine.

A drug called ketamine that’s injected as a sedative during arrests has drawn new scrutiny since a young Black man named Elijah McClain died in suburban Denver.