It is a stimulant, which increases alertness, attention and energy, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Stimulants – which also include cocaine and ecstasy – are often referred to as “uppers”. 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. The illegal substance can sell on the streets for as little as five dollars a hit. 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 has been classified by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as a Schedule I drug. Ministers and harm-reduction experts clash over what could, or should, be done as the crisis shows no signs of abating.
Does flakka turn people into cannibals?
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. Flakka is an addictive drug that people use to obtain a cheap, quick, and euphoric high.
“The hospitals can’t keep the patients comfortable – because of their addiction – to keep them long enough to get the wounds under control,” Ronnie Kaiser told me. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has seized xylazine-fentanyl mixtures in 48 of the 50 US states. And according to the DEA laboratories, in 2022, 23% of fentanyl powder and 7% of fentanyl tablets contained xylazine. Moreover, according to the US FDA, Routine toxicology screens do not detect Xylazine, making it really difficult to pin it as a cause in cases of drug overdose.
What Is Xylazine, the Drug That’s ‘Turning People Into Zombies’ in US?
Measham wants the government to adopt a licensing regime modelled on New Zealand’s psychoactive substances act, which has yet to become law. Under the proposals, manufacturers assessed as producing low-harm psychoactive substances would be allowed alcohol use disorder diagnosis and treatment to sell the drugs under licence. Since the ban, Sutcliffe has analysed batches that have been found to contain the chemical AMB-FUBINACA at higher concentrations than that which caused the hospitalisation of 18 people in Brooklyn last year.
Though he stayed away from the drug during his days as a user, Sherman knows what to look for. She pointed to the perennial American problem of medical insurance and the ‘for profit’ medical facilities. Even those living on the streets and suffering from addiction are required to navigate the country’s complex health system if they are to stand a real chance of recovery.
- These include cocaine, methamphetamine (crystal meth), and MDMA (molly or ecstasy).
- Federally, government officials certainly can consider classifying xylazine as a controlled substance.
- Flakka originally became popular as a new synthetic drug in South Florida with people looking for a cheap high.
- Dopamine is the neurotransmitter involved in the pleasure and reward center of the brain, which gives off that euphoric feeling.
“We know there are antidotes to spice but they’ve been shelved by the drug companies,” Nutt said. “I find it frustrating that when people are dying from Ebola there’s an initiative to stop that, but when people are dying from spice the government says it’s not our job. It should commission someone to get an antidote back into the medical arena.” But this is unlikely to be made a priority any time soon. In 2015, when spice emerged bath salts drug from the shadows, new psychoactive substances were involved in 204 deaths in the UK, an increase of 25% from 163 deaths in 2014. The chemicals are called synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists (SCRAs). Because they have an effect on many of the body’s cells, not just the brain, they were originally developed by pharmaceutical firms to help understand how putative new drugs could be used to treat different conditions.
Police in Lancashire tackle surge of spice-related incidents
This method of ingestion can make it particularly easy to overdose on flakka. Prior to the UK ban, the only two countries in the world to have passed similar legislation were Ireland and Poland, which both subsequently saw increases in the use of new psychoactive drugs. Xylazine, the “zombie drug,” has fully asserted its presence in Kensington, just as it has elsewhere across Philadelphia, the Northeast corridor, and, increasingly, other sectors of the U.S.
People who use drugs sometimes don’t know it’s part of what they’re taking even after they have become addicted to it. The rise of xylazine, a common additive to illicit substances like fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine, and a likely contributor to spiking overdose death rates in the U.S., has researchers and drinking alcohol with covid-19 government agencies on alert. They’re short on information, screening, surveillance, drug monitoring and virtually absent of policy—and based upon the numbers, that will almost certainly have to change. Synthetic drugs known as bath salts are from the synthetic cathinone class of drugs, like flakka.
Paul Matthews, 28, earned the nickname “Splash” because he stole koi carp to feed his cocaine addiction – an addiction that finally brought him a prison sentence. But the SCRAs produced unwelcome side-effects and the drug giants discontinued their research. For many years they were forgotten, the blueprints for their manufacture lying idle in university archives. When police in Florida pulled a 19-year-old student away from the bodies of his two alleged victims – one of whom he had reportedly bitten in the face – they knew what to blame. The new data shows it’s too late, and in May the first UK death linked to xylaxine was announced.
He started using spice after the cot death of his five-week-old daughter Eva-Rose two years ago. “I’m not saying I was an angel before, you know, but it helps,” Roberts said. He has the face of someone who looks both older and younger than his 37 years. In Broward County, Florida, some 60 people died by the end of 2015 – only 14 months after the drug began taking its hold on the area. But although its dangers may have been exaggerated, taking the drug is risky – it is addictive and can cause fatal overdoses.
The US FDA has also said that health authorities in the country will continuing to investigate the source of Xylazine in the illicit drug supply, and will provide an update when new information is available. The video clips that started surfacing on the internet last year shows people on the streets unable to stand upright or walk properly, and moving sluggishly. Synthetic cathinones are also labeled as ‘not for human consumption.’ These labels help hide the real reason for the product’s existence, so the drugs distribute easily. While there are no FDA-approved medications for addiction to flakka, there are medicines available for co-occurring mental health conditions. However, several traditional drug treatment approaches can help someone addicted to flakka become sober. Like other stimulants of this type, flakka can cause excited delirium, otherwise known as agitated delirium.
Symptoms of Flakka Abuse & Addiction
We’re still learning what tranq does to users, either on its own or in conjunction with fentanyl and other opioids. But public health agencies can’t go to work until they know what they’re fighting—and in the battle against the zombie drug, the need for more information is a call to arms. A synthetic substance that emerged only three years ago has already wreaked chaos within the prison service and placed huge pressures on the emergency services. In every town centre, spice users can be found begging for the small amount of loose change they need to buy their next fix. Those who ingest tranq as part of a fentanyl dose often lapse into hourslong blackouts; by the time they rouse themselves, the effects of the high have worn off, and the desperation for a new dose begins.