Colorado Lawmaker Pushes For Accountability Amid Review Of Ketamine Use In Police Encounters
“We have to look at the proliferation of the use of ketamine throughout Colorado and we need to rein it in,” said Rep. Leslie Herod, a member of the Black Democratic Legislative Caucus.
She questioned medics’ use of ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, on Elijah McClain one year ago today after police officers in Aurora tackled him and placed him in a carotid hold as he pleaded with them. Though he was in handcuffs, a medic gave McClain ketamine and several days later he died in a hospital. In a federal civil rights lawsuit, McClain’s family argues that the combination of police brutality and ketamine killed him, though the official autopsy was inconclusive."
