Ketamine seems to be a commonly used drug in emergencies because it's a safer anesthetic than propofol when you don't know specifics about the patient and can't determine dosage.
Ketamine is the world’s most commonly used anaesthetic, or at least it was as of some years ago.
It’s on the WHO’s list of 100 essential medicines because it’s one of the very rare anaesthetics that doesn’t depress the respiratory system, making it extremely safe by comparison with many others.
There are. Hypertension, arrhythmia, confusion, delirium... Mostly at anesthetic or at least pain killer dosage, though. Ketamine can in fact be a dangerous drug when you don't know what you're doing.
The idea of the pendulum swinging too far is a huge over-reaction. The pendulum has 40 years of swinging back to a "normal" state if you include the overprescribed industry of prescribing mood altering drugs to suburbanites, adderall, etc. Yes, the boomer and gen-x generations were raised in a lie: their doctors told them they could take drugs without side effects. However, this is now well known.