WWHEN BYRON MacLEAN was forced to retire from his police job in Nova Scotia for medical reasons last year, he saw a psychotherapist to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder from military duty in Afghanistan and time on the force. But after a while, talk therapy stopped working. His depression, anxiety, and night terrors returned, straining his marriage. “I felt really stuck,” says MacLean, 43.
Then a military buddy told him about ketamine—the psychedelic drug that doctors have used for decades as an anesthetic and pain reliever and that has gained new popularity as a possible wonder drug for mood disorders. MacLean was initially scared it would send him on a bad hallucinogenic trip.
