What is flakka and why has the ‘superhuman’ bath salt drug been linked with so many cannibal cases?
The drug has earned a reputation for causing violent and erratic behaviour
IT'S the drug that has been linked to cannibalism and aggressive attacks in the streets, but what is flakka?
The drug has earned a reputation for causing violent and erratic behaviour. Here's what we know...
What is 'zombie drug' flakka?
Flakka is an alpha-pyrrolidinopentiophenone (alpha-PDP) drug, a new version of bath salts.
Usually made in China, flakka is said to give users a feeling of euphoria and a heightened sense of awareness.
The drug can give users an appearance of having super strength while also significantly heating up body temperature to more than 41 degrees.
Other complications include elevated blood pressure as well as potentially causing a stroke or heart attack.
Costing just $5 a dose, the synthetic drug be horrifically dangerous and addictive for users.
Why has the bath salt drug been linked to so many cannibal cases?
Flakka's link to cannabilism appeared to rise in the summer of 2012, when Rudy Eugene, a woman thought to be high on "bath salts" chewed the face and eyeball of a homeless man.
Medics later found the substance was not present in her system.
Reported cases include a man who tried to have sex with a tree after taking the drug, with the man then managing to rip a taser out of his body after being shot at by police.
The latest incident involves a woman accused of killing her own mother by gouging her eyes out said she might have been high on flakka at the time.
Although not medically proven, flakka has been associated with cases of cannibalism because people thought to be under the influence show side-effects linked to the synthetic drug.
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Forensic toxicologists have said the drug is a mix between potent hallucinogens like LSD and simulants like ice.
The drug has now been banned in the United Kingdom, as well as in other countries including France, Germany, Ireland and Sweden.
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