Flakka: A Designer Drug with Deadly Consequences

Flakka, a new designer drug, is surging in popularity. The name comes from la flaca, a Spanish club-slang term for a beautiful skinny girl. This latest illegal substance of abuse is likened to other synthetic cathinone drugs popularly called “bath salts” and takes the form of a pink or white foul-smelling crystal that can be eaten, mixed in drinks, snorted, injected, vaporized, and some have even used it like a suppository. The khat plant found in the Middle East and Somalia is the source of natural cathinones; there, leaves are chewed on to gain a sense of euphoria2,3. Vaporization is also a craze, using the fairly new e-cigarettes, where inhalation increases the immediacy to the blood stream. The U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse has warned that smoking Flakka not only sends the drug very quickly into the bloodstream, it makes it particularly easy to overdose4. Poison control centers in states including Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas are responding to an increasing number of incidents involving it5. The lone active ingredient, alpha-PVP, is a stimulant that was developed in the 60s.