Police said they are worried about a new drug making the rounds, said to be stronger than meth, cocaine and even bath salts.
The drug is called “flakka” — and police said it literally makes people go insane. The reason why it’s becoming a drug on the rise is because the euphoric state it gives its users, medical professionals said.
In high doses it can cause delirium, where the body’s temperature can rise up to 105 degrees.
But people on flakka may also experience hallucinations, paranoia, anxiety, insomnia and even violent aggression.
“They’re hallucinating,” said Dr. Nabilel Sanadi. “They’re on a psychotic state, they may have superhuman strength.”
According to CBS news:
In Fort Lauderdale last month, a man tried to break down the front door of a local precinct and told police officers he was high on flakka. A few weeks later, another man who said he had just smoked flakka impaled himself while trying to scale a fence around the police station. In Lake Worth, a city in Palm Beach County, a man armed with a gun — and naked — stood on a rooftop and announced, “I feel delusional, and I’m hallucinating!” He told authorities he had vaped flakka with an e-cigarette.
“If you come across somebody high on drugs — and it’s a super strength drug and they have super strength and you try to detain them, talk to them and they get violent, it could be a bad situation,” said Sargeant Ted Taranu, with the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
Others symptoms of flakka use include heart problems, kidney failure even death.
The drug is currently legal, but the drug enforcement agency is looking to address that because of its obvious dangers.
Flakka is most typically made from the chemical alpha-PVP, which is a synthetic version of the amphetamine-like stimulant cathinone. Cathinones are chemicals derived from the khat plant grown in the Middle East and Somalia, where the leaves are frequently chewed for a euphoric buzz, reported CBS news.
