Drug-Induced Mayhem In Florida Continues To Be Fueled By ‘Flakka’ [Video]

Flakka is the latest in a long line of synthetic designer drugs to challenge law enforcement and drug laws, while also sending the flakka users on insane and ridiculous drug journeys that often don’t turn out well for anyone involved.

Florida is proving to be one of the primary breeding grounds of flakka and the human mind, leading to many unfortunate incidents, including a mother who ditched her baby in front of a Boynton Beach, Florida, office building on Thursday.

CBS Miami reports that 20-year-old Qushanna Doby told police she’d been smoking flakka after the police had responded to a report of an abandoned baby in a dirty diaper, crying while perched on the sidewalk next to a busy road.

After police arrived, Doby reportedly ran up in a suspected flakka-induced haze, screaming, “My baby! My baby!”

Doby was taken into custody, at which time she revealed her flakka use.

In other suspected Florida-flakka incidents, a man was running wild and naked through a neighborhood before trying to have his way with a tree, then telling arriving police that he was the Marvel comic book character Thor, reports Yahoo News.

And the flakka fun in Florida doesn’t stop there.

Another man was caught running down a busy street in the middle of the day, flakka also somehow motivated him to discard his clothes and run naked. He would later swear that a pack of German shepherds had been hot on his naked flakka trail.

Two other flakka users tried to bust into the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, convinced some mysterious people were chasing them. So fierce was their flakka paranoia that one of the two frightened individuals later got impaled on a fence in his effort to get away from the non-existent people.

The flakka tales above all share a frightening consistency that is also often reported by other flakka users. That is, that any high they may experience from flakka generally devolves into a manic state of panic and paranoia, with thoughts of being secretly watched or literally chased.

An example of the bad impact a flakka-trip can have on one’s mind is showcased below, a man purportedly on flakka while outside a Florida market.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=34&v=ZVe2bAw7S6g

“I’ve had one addict describe it as $5 insanity,” said drug treatment counselor, Don Maines, who works for 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.”

Price is believed to be part of flakka’s “$5 insanity” popularity, joining other popular synthetic drugs like bath salts and ecstasy, but according to authorities, flakka is easier to get, and is often delivered in small quantities right to the flakka consumer’s door.

For these reasons, flakka use appears to be growing. There are also multiple ways for the flakka user to ingest the drug, be it through smoking flakka from an electronic cigarette, which gives no hint of smell, to other popular flakka ingesting methods such as snorting, or just flat out eating it.

“It’s an emerging drug,” said Chad Brown, a supervisory special agent for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. “It’s definitely something we are watching.”

[Image via DEA, video via YouTube]