‘First UK victim’ of f lakka – drug that fills users with rage
A FACTORY worker is believed to have become the first person in Britain to die after taking a deadly drug blamed for alarming incidents of violence in the US.
Andrea Horvathova, 23, was found to have a deadly cocktail of illegal substances in her system including alphaPVP, known as flakka.
The designer drug, which costs as little as £2.50 a hit, has been linked to a number of violent attacks in the US including one in which a woman gouged her mother’s eyes out while high on it.
Those who have taken the drug have described feeling as though they have the strength and fury of the Incredible Hulk, as well as paranoia and delusions.
At an inquest into Miss Horvathova’s death, senior coroner Ian Arrow heard that her heart and liver had been damaged after she took a number of illegal drugs at a party in Plymouth.
She also suffered a heart attack which experts concluded was very likely to have been caused by the combination of drugs she had consumed.
Miss Horvathova was found unconscious in the early hours of March 4, 2018, and died in hospital three days later.
The inquest at Plymouth Coroner’s Court heard she had taken several different drugs at the party but at one point a man was seen offering her an unidentified pill which she consumed. A toxicology
‘The effects are unpredictable’
report flagged flakka in her system, as well as traces of amphetamine, ecstasy and cocaine.
Devon and Cornwall Police first encountered flakka in the area in 2016. ‘ People don’t know the strength of drugs they are taking,’ a drug expert with the force said.
‘The internet market, which is where people are buying illegal drugs, has increased and as a result the drugs’ quality, strength and purity has increased and the effects are unpredictable.
‘Fortunately we don’t see a lot of it, but alpha-PVP is one we have seen in the past and has certainly been in Plymouth before.
‘It’s not something we have seen on a weekly basis, maybe once or twice a year per area.’ Ruth Harrell,
director of public health in Plymouth, said: ‘Almost all UK drug deaths are, like this case, attributed to “poly- drug” use, where drugs commonly known to be dangerous are used in combination with alcohol and other drugs.
‘We do monitor the use of novel psychoactive substances but the real crisis in drug deaths is the increased quality, availability and potency of heroin and cocaine used with depressant drugs like alcohol and benzodiazepines.’
The inquest on January 23 concluded that Miss Horvathova’s death was drug related.
Flakka is a man-made substance imported from China that can be eaten, snorted, injected or vaped.
Police in the US have reported a number of shocking incidents involving people thought to have been using the drug.
In Royal Palm Beach, Florida, in March 2018, Camille Balla, 32, is alleged to have murdered her mother and cut out her eyes after smoking cannabis she believed may have been laced with flakka.
In another case Derren Morrison, 29, was sentenced to life in prison in 2017 for the murder of grandmother Louise Clinton, who died on her 83rd birthday in 2015.
He told police he had been smoking flakka before the attack, which he carried out after knocking on Mrs Clinton’s door, believing her to be a blood-soaked demon.
In another case, a video was released online showing an American prisoner who had taken the drug biting the head off a mouse.