What you need to know about flakka, the latest drug causing erratic behaviour National

When someone goes through a flakka detox, they will usually experience withdrawal symptoms such as those listed above. When someone is addicted to flakka, they can experience withdrawal symptoms without it. Like other stimulants of this type, flakka can cause excited delirium, otherwise known as agitated delirium. This condition occurs when there’s an excessive influx of sympathetic activation.

Flakka blocks a user’s dopamine and norepinephrine transporter proteins from functioning properly in the brain. This leads to an increase in heart rate, blood pressure, and dopamine production, making the brain demand more and more of the drug to register reward. In the year 2015, the number of emergency department visits due to synthetic cathinone rose over 20,000. A research conducted on rats found out that they became addicted to the drug and would thereby press a lever as often as possible to get more of the drug.

The designer drug flakka comes in crystal form, and it is typically pink or white. The synthetic drug may be eaten, injected, snorted, or vaporized in e-cigarettes. This method of ingestion can make it particularly easy to overdose on flakka. But like “bath salts,” a group of related synthetic drugs that were banned in 2012, flakka has the potential to be much more dangerous than cocaine. Flakka has gained fame due to its ability to cause erratic and dangerous behavior in users.

Dependence and abuse potential

• Flakka is a very powerful psychoactive stimulant that is similar to MDPV and pyrovalerone.
• Alpha-Pyrrolidinopentiophenone is a synthetic cathinone that acts as a stimulant similar to amphetamine, the active ingredient in certain ADHD medications.
• In connection, long term effects of this drug are yet to be published.
• While it can be purchased online, it’s unclear if the designer drug has made its way into Canada yet.
• When someone goes through a flakka detox, they will usually experience withdrawal symptoms such as those listed above.
• However, it generally involves a combination of detoxification, group and individual therapy, educational presentations, and aftercare planning in order to ensure long-term recovery.

Flakka was banned by the Drug Enforcement Administration in early 2014. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration placed a temporary ban on a-PVP and nine of synthetic cathinones in March 2014. The designer drug is still classified by the DEA as a Schedule I Controlled Substance as of May of this year. At least 20 other countries have banned or regulated a-PVP in some way. The Chinese government banned flakka and 115 other synthetic drugs as of October 1st – just weeks before the U.S.

Some say the term is random and quite fittingly describes what a person high on this drug feels. A popular street name for A-PVP is “gravel” as the pink and white crystals look like those flakka drug wikipedia placed in fish aquariums. In recent news, Flakka was behind a man stabbing and allegedly attempting to eat a Florida couple. This could be a possibility as aside from causing violent behavior, the drug also boosts a user’s physical strength.

• One certainty though is that A-PVP is toxic to the kidneys, but its effects on the body and the brain in the long term are yet to be determined.
• He was naked and shouting that he was hallucinating, according to the Broward Palm Beach New Times.
• As little is known about flakka, detoxing in the care of medical professionals is essential.
• The chemical is linked to cathinone, the drug found in bath salts.
• This leads to an increase in heart rate, blood pressure, and dopamine production, making the brain demand more and more of the drug to register reward.
• As soon as it wears off, one may need to take more of the drug, thereby causing adverse effects.

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Combining other drugs with flakka can result in intense symptoms likened to those from the heavy use of benzodiazepines. According to a survey from February 2019, 1% of the teens in America have used flakka knowingly, and more have used it unknowingly. The high feeling that one gets after using flakka can last up to three hours. Flakka is part of a group of drugs referred to as New Psychoactive Substances (NPS).

Cognitive effects

In some parts of the country, it is also called “gravel” because of its white crystal chunks that have been compared to aquarium gravel. Internationally, the legal status of flakka varies by country, but many countries have taken steps to control its use due to its dangerous effects. The toxicity and long-term health effects of recreational α-PVP use do not appear to have been studied in any scientific context and the exact toxic dosage is unknown.

Flakka Withdrawal Symptoms

In another incident, a Palm Beach resident stood from a rooftop, waving a gun. He was naked and shouting that he was hallucinating, according to the Broward Palm Beach New Times. Broward County told Health Day the drug has been tied to 10 deaths. There are as many as 20 “excited delirium” cases per day in local emergency rooms there.

Ark Behavioral Health offers 100% confidential substance abuse assessment and treatment placement tailored to your individual needs. It may, however, cause an excited delirium resulting in wild, unpredictable, and severely violent behavior in those under this drug’s influence. As with other stimulant drugs, Flakka greatly increases the activity of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain. This trips the brain’s reward pathway, causing a euphoric high and priming a person to feel cravings to repeat the experience in the future.

It has the molecular formula of C15H21NO, a cathione that is structurally related to methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) and pyrovalerone. Both chemicals have been known to affect the body’s dopamine and norepinephrine level. Though first synthesized in the 1960’s, the use of Flakka in the United States as a recreational drug is fairly recent (2013). In connection, long term effects of this drug are yet to be published.

After effects

The synthetic drug can also elevate your blood pressure, which can cause a heart attack, stroke, aneurysm, or heart failure, according to the Mayo Clinic. Like bath salts, flakka simulates the effects of cocaine and methamphetamine without the price tag. That’s why the designer drug has become so popular among college-age adults – since it’s 10 times more powerful than coke. “The high is pretty high and getting off takes longer,” Cidambi said. A standard urine drug test kit does not detect synthetic cathinones found in alpha- pyrrolidinopentiophenone and in other bath salts. However, there are now quantitative testing for primary chemicals such as A-PVP, MDPV, DMAA, Methylone, Mephedrone and Pentedrone.