While heroin still tops the list of Maryland’s drug problems—expected to exceed 500 deaths this year—a new drug with lethal consequences might soon be making its rounds on the Eastern Shore.
“Flakka”, also known as “gravel” and “crackle” is a chemical cousin to the popular “bath salts” concoction a few years back. These synthetic drugs often contain a kitchen sink of synthetic marijuana, cocaine and even asthma medicine, along with synthetic versions (Alpha PVP) of naturally occurring amphetamine-like drugs called cathonines.
Cathonines are extracted from the kaht plant and imported from China, India, and Pakistan.
Flakka tricks brain processes into concentrating and prolonging the effect the drug has on the brain’s native pleasure center chemicals, dopamine and serotonin, and can trigger a state of “excited delirium”.
But it can quickly become a nightmare. Aside from risking psychosis and aberrant behavior—people taking flakka often feel as though they have superhuman strength—body temperature can spike to106, and can lead to kidney damage or even kidney failure requiring life-long kidney dialysis.
Drug names can be deceiving. Flakka in southern Florida may be sold on the Eastern Shore as a combination of heroin and meth, a common myth on the street—it is neither. Or it can have a localized nickname. So far, reports describe it as crystal chunks but can appear as a powder, and it has a foul odor.
Chestertown Police report that they have had no direct evidence of its availability in Kent County, but they are well aware of the public risks of someone on flakka. It can take up to four people to suppress an individual under its influence.
Chief Baker and his officers have shared information about the substance. “We hope this one goes by us,” said one of Baker’s undercover officers.
Making these drugs illegal fast enough to be effectively controlled is another problem, and it’s not the fault of law enforcement. Rogue chemists search available chemical templates to assist in their manufacturing of these drugs, and by the time one ingredient is outlawed as a Schedule 1 drug, a chemist will change a molecule not covered by the law. Alpha-PVP was banned as a Schedule 1 drug by U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency in 2014. But it’s still making its way onto the streets.
It has appeared in Florida, Texas and Ohio.
And somewhere there is a chemist adding or subtracting a molecule to create another, even more dangerous, chemical cousin.
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