All stories

1 outlets · filed 1 October 2026

What is ketamine, the drug at the center of the alleged rape at Cornell?

This story is from the archive. It was covered between 1 October 2026 and 1 October 2026, and nothing below has been updated since. See what is happening now.

The controlled substance is approved as an anesthetic, but also has long been abused as a party and date rape drug.

What the coverage shows

Most outlets frame the story around ketamine or a legal gap in the Cornell 7 case: The Independent and The Washington Post both explain what ketamine is, while Vox centers the “loophole” and Reuters focuses on lawmakers seeking changes to rape law. National Review stands apart from the rest, using the case to argue about sexual liberation and a “moral wilderness,” a framing not shared by the other outlets.

Written by Crossfiled from the 1 headlines and extracts below, not from the articles themselves. It describes how the outlets framed this, not what happened. Open any headline for a summary of that article.

Washington Post

How it broke

1outlets
0videos
1articles

More on Health

Every Health story, across every outlet