Flakka Drug: What It Is, Effects, and Nicknames

Alpha-PVP produces a rush of dopamine in the brain, causing an intense high similar to that of cocaine and methamphetamine. But it can also cause agitated delirium and sometimes results in psychiatric hospitalization. It can cause compulsive drug-seeking behavior even when people know the health, social and legal consequences of their actions. Flakka is a dangerous drug that has many bad side effects, mostly including changes in behavior or mood. As flakka is a new drug, there is still a lot to learn about the treatment of the substance.

In West Flanders, it’s especially in the region around the town of Roeselare, where the drug first gained popularity, that it is giving cause for concern. Some complications of Flakka drug abuse can happen while the drug user is acutely agitated if they were to harm themselves or others; however, medically, the severe consequences of the agitation caused by the drug appear later. Agitated patients can go into a state called “excited delirium,” which is a medical emergency. In the excited delirium state, restrained patients struggle to free themselves, scream, flail, and can even have seizures.

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Bath salts, in general, are psychoactive synthetic drugs (designer drugs) made in large quantities in foreign drug labs. These drugs are all related to a broader group of chemical compounds known as synthetic cathinones, chemically similar to a substance found in the khat plant, which is known for its amphetamine-like stimulant effects. Some brand names of synthetic cathinones include Bliss, Vanilla Sky, Lunar Wave, Cloud Nine, and White Lightning. Flakka is the street name for the synthetic cathinone called alpha-pyrrolidinopentiophenone (Alpha-PVP). Police in south Florida have seen a growing number of cases of bizarre and uncontrollable behavior linked to a street drug called flakka, one of the newer chemicals in the booming category of synthetic or designer drugs. Synthetic drugs known as bath salts are from the synthetic cathinone class of drugs, like flakka.

This struggle causes a high core body temperature called hyperthermia. The combination of a high body temperature and extreme muscle overactivity can cause other metabolic problems to happen in the body. Muscle tissue begins to break down, releasing proteins and other cellular products into the bloodstream, in a process called rhabdomyolysis. The result of the cellular products and proteins released during rhabdomyolysis and dehydration can impair the filtering function of the kidneys, leading to renal failure and death. In addition, such agitation may trigger Taser use or other methods that have the potential to harm the individual when law enforcement personnel have to intervene.

1. Cathinone use can also cause rhabdomyolysis, which is a melting of the muscle tissue and the release of muscle fibers into the blood stream.
2. 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.
3. Over the past several years, dozens of cases have made headlines and helped make the flakka drug as feared as it is today.
4. That is why the West Flanders public prosecutor’s office has now decided to take decisive action.
5. Flakka is one of a number of cathinone-based drugs that are produced in China and sold online to small-time drug gangs in the U.S.

People high on the synthetic cathinone began acting erratically — exhibiting bizarre behaviors and becoming uncontrollably volatile. This led to a number of emergency department visits, overdoses and deaths. all opiates detox Flakka originally became popular as a new synthetic drug in South Florida with people looking for a cheap high. Flakka is the latest in a selection of synthetic drugs used in the United States.

alpha-Pyrrolidinopentiophenone

In recent years there’s been a rise in the number of national crime lab reports for cathinones, along with a decline in cases involving MDMA, which is the active chemical in both Molly and Ecstasy. Benzodiazepines may be used to calm the individual, and antipsychotics such as olanzapine might help alleviate symptoms of drug-induced psychosis. But no medications have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat alpha-PVP abuse. It can be smoked in a joint or e-cigarette, injected or compressed into capsules and swallowed.

When experiencing excited delirium, some people react with violent behavior and self-injury. Flakka has been linked to several deaths by suicide, as well as heart attacks. The drug can also raise body temperature dangerously high, leading to kidney damage or failure. Like “bath salts” — the other grisly crime-inducing brain changes associated with long-term ketamine abuse a systematic review pmc drug that saw a sharp rise in popularity a few years ago — the flakka drug is technically known as alpha-pyrrolidinopentiophenone (alpha-PVP), a type of synthetic cathinone. This dangerous class of drugs gets its kick from manmade compounds chemically related to cathinone, a derivative of the khat shrub.

Thus, there are cases as violent as Austin Harrouff, and sometimes as unhinged as a 37-year-old Floridian identified only as Stephanie. NBC News reported that upon her very first experience with the flakka drug, she hallucinated that she was being chased. She then ripped off her clothes and jumped three stories off a bridge and into the water below. First invented in the 1960s, these compounds contort that euphoria and arousal into something far darker. And all of flakka’s devastating delirium and aggression start with a simple white or pink crystal.

How The Flakka Drug Epidemic Nearly Drove South Florida To Madness

They can also be taken orally, smoked, or placed into a solution and injected into the veins. As little is known about flakka, detoxing in the care of medical professionals is essential. When someone goes through a flakka detox, they will usually experience withdrawal symptoms such as those listed above.

Detection in body fluids

In some of the documented delusions, individuals’ experiences are of a typical paranoia, where the drug users feel they are being chased by a large group of people trying to kill them. These patients are a threat to themselves, the people around them, and the first responders (police, EMS) who are there to help them. It is common to hear reports that it takes multiple people to restrain and sedate these patients. Rescue crews and emergency department staff need to give sedatives to these patients to calm them and make them safe. Each time one type of bath salt is made illegal, the drug labs change the chemical structure slightly and a new drug that is technically not illegal is created.

Flakka Withdrawal Symptoms

Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. But it may be tough to keep the drug butalbital acetaminophen caffeine oral at bay for long because it’s also extraordinarily profitable. Brevard County SheriffKenneth Crowder attempted to have sex with a tree while under the effects of flakka.

They mimic the stimulant effects similar to those resulting from illegal drugs. These include cocaine, methamphetamine (crystal meth), and MDMA (molly or ecstasy). Flakka is a highly addictive and dangerous drug, otherwise known as alpha-PVP (alpha-pyrrolidinopentiophenone.) It is an amphetamine-like stimulant that belongs to the cathinone drug class. Cathinones are man-made, or synthetic drugs containing cathinone, a naturally occurring stimulant found in the khat plant. Flakka is the nickname of alpha-PVP, a synthetic cathinone derived from the African khat plant. The designer drug is chemically similar to 3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), an active ingredient in bath salts.

Hall says that in 2013 there were a total of 126 reported deaths tied to synthetic cathinone in Florida. In 2012, the Drug Enforcement Administration banned two chemicals used to make the synthetic street drug bath salts. These bizarre, dangerous, and violent behaviors are directly due to the side effects of the street drug Flakka.