‘Insane’ designer drug cost just $5
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. — One man ran naked through a Florida neighbourhood, tried to have sex with a tree and told police he was the mythical god Thor.
Two others tried separately to break into the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. They said people were chasing them; one wound up impaled on a fence.
The common element to these and other bizarre incidents in Florida in the past few months is flakka, an increasingly popular synthetic designer drug. Also known as gravel and readily available for $5 or less, it’s a growing problem for police after bursting on the scene in 2013.
It is the latest in a series of synthetic drugs that include Ecstasy and bath salts, but officials say flakka is even easier to obtain in small quantities through the mail.
Flakka’s active ingredient is a chemical compound called alpha-PVP, which is on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s list of the controlled substances most likely to be abused. It is made in countries including China and Pakistan.
Flakka, a derivative of the Spanish word for a thin, pretty woman, is usually sold in a crystal form and is often smoked using electronic cigarettes. It can also be snorted, injected or swallowed.
“I’ve had one addict describe it as $5 insanity,” said Don Maines, a drug treatment counsellor with the Broward Sheriff’s Office in Fort Lauderdale. “They still want to try it because it’s so cheap. It gives them heightened awareness. They feel stronger and more sensitive to touch. But then the paranoia sets in.”
Judging from the evidence being seized by police around Florida, flakka use is up sharply. Submissions for testing to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s crime labs have grown from 38 in 2013 to 228 in 2014. At the Broward Sheriff’s Office laboratory, flakka submissions grew from fewer than 200 in 2014 to 275 in just the first three months of this year, according to spokeswoman Keyla Concepcion.
“It’s definitely something we are watching. It’s an emerging drug,” said Chad Brown, an FDLE supervisory special agent.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, reports of flakka or gravel also have surfaced in Ohio, Texas and Tennessee, but Florida appears to be the nation’s hot spot.
In one recent case, 22-year-old Jaime Nicole Lewis was charged in a DEA complaint with conspiracy to distribute flakka after DEA agents based in London intercepted U.S.-bound packages of the drug that were made in Hong Kong. An undercover DEA agent posing as a delivery company employee then brought the packages to Lewis’ home in Palm Beach County, according to a court affidavit.
“Synthetic drugs are illegal and present a grave danger to our community, particularly our children,” said Miami U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer.