Flakka Drug To Blame — 19-Year-Old Arrested After She Called Emergency Services Because She Was Robbed? [Video]

The flakka drug is to blame again. Daneshia Lachelle Heller, a 19-year-old from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, called emergency services because she had been robbed. On the service, she was doing what any of us would have done. However, it is what she confessed while on the phone that got her in trouble.

When dispatchers asked what her emergency was, Heller informed them that one Zakkan Allen had robbed her of her drug money.

“I’m going through detox mode, right now. He got my money, and I want my drugs. Can you send an officer?”

Emergency services complied and sent an officer to pick her up. When the officer arrived, he found the 19-year-old Heller talking to herself and in an agitated state, according to the Sun Sentinel report. The police officer discovered she had a white substance in her possession. He tested her and the substance tested positive for the synthetic drug flakka. She has been charged with drug possession and improperly using the 911 system.

Flakka or Alpha-PVP has become a major issue in the Sunshine State. According to a report released just this week by Reuters through Yahoo News, flakka has become the drug of choice in Florida, even surpassing cocaine.

Veteran of the Broward County Police Department and narcotics officer William Schwartz said, “Cocaine was king, until this year.”

Last year, 190 cases were reported in Broward County. By May, there have already been 275 incidents where flakka was involved. The number is only going to grow, according to most officers, because flakka is cheap. A single dose of the synthetic drug will sell for as little as $5. Furthermore, according to the Reuters article, Chinese companies advertise online, and large quantities are being sent over all of the time.

Flakka gets its name from a Spanish word for a skinny attractive woman. The drug’s effect is similar to ecstasy. The user feels almost superhuman. Wen the user comes down off the high, they can become delirious.

Dr. Peter Ventre is a psychiatrist in Fort Lauderdale. He explains what long-term effects flakka can have on the body. A 20-year-old he treated recently was suffering from symptoms that were similar to a stroke or brain bleeding. The flakka drug was the cause.

“Now she can’t talk, can’t recognize anybody and can’t walk on her own.”

While Daneshia Lachelle Heller’s case seems odd on the surface, it is representative of a much larger problem that is emerging. This has authorities comparing flakka to the crack cocaine epidemic that was alive and well in the 80s. At this point, 27 people in Broward County alone have died from flakka drug overdoses this year.

[Photo by Business Insider]