Insanity Drug for Lunatics
"I've had one addict describe it as $5 insanity. 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."
"It actually starts to rewire the brain chemistry. They [users] have no control over their thoughts."
"It seems to be universal that they think someone is chasing them. It's just a dangerous, dangerous drug."
Don Maines, drug treatment counsellor, Fort Lauderdale
Flakka is made from a chemical cousin of the amphetamine-like drug found in bath salts (pictured above)."It's definitely something we are watching. It's an emerging drug."
Chad Brown, supervisory special agent, Florida Department of Law Enforcement
Flakka, it is called, and it's dirt cheap to buy. And because it's a "dangerous, dangerous drug", why would anyone in their right mind to begin with, flirt with it? All the more so when addicts themselves think of it as "$5 insanity". Nothing is ever simple, but it is simply mind-boggling that people are so little enamoured of life that they strongly insist life needs the 'enhancement' that drugs lend to it, even if it turns out to be both soul- and body-destroying.
It's the newest craze on the street where drugs are hawked and avidly sought, made from a compound named alpha-PVP. It's close to cathinone, found in bath salts, an amphetamine-like drug, officially banned in 2011, although alpha-PVP wasn't banned. Since it has never been banned, it's legal trade. And like cathinone, alpha-PVP is a stimulant, an "upper".
Uppers are, logically enough, related to emotions of euphoria, of enhanced alertness, wakefulness and increased body movement. Symptoms similar to those experienced by people on amphetamines or cocaine, but much, much cheaper, and easier to obtain because it is, after all, not officially an 'illegal' recreational drug.
It is responsible also, unfortunately for extreme feelings of fatigue, depression, anxiety, depression, and hallucinations. With that kind of effect and end-result, how is it even possible that users value it for its "upper" effect, since it most certainly ends up a downer. But there's no logic in the decisions made by addicts to drugs, only that never-ending search to experience life-enhancements, feelings otherwise denied by the dreariness of life.
And its use has been growing. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, reports of the drug have been addressed from Ohio to Texas and Tennessee. Florida seems, for the time being at least, to be the most popular place where flakka, or gravel is in common use. Those who manufacture the drug make subtle alterations to its chemical makeup effectively foiling attempts to test for the drug.
As well, it's mixed often with other substances like crack, cocaine or heroin, and the full effects are unknown. But what is known is that with prolonged use, brain chemical may be altered. Add to that, if the drug is of sufficient strength it is capable of heightening the body temperature and when that happens severe physical alterations can occur, including kidney damage.
It's usually sold in crystal form and is smoked often using electronic cigarettes, popular with the young. It can be snorted, injected or swallowed. And it's made in countries like China and Pakistan. Bizarre behaviour of addicts in Florida has drawn attention of authorities to its emergence, as yet another threat among people anxious to take the long route in self-destruction.
Labels: Drugs, Health, United States
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, May 02, 2015
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