In 2012, Americans were horrified by the news of a Miami man found eating the face off of a homeless man. Initial reports dubbed Rudy Eugene the "MiamiCannibal" or the "Causeway Cannibal" and claimed that Eugene perpetrated the grisly attack while under the influence of bath salts. At that time, bathsalts were the latest designer drug, and their use was associated with bizarre and violent behavior.
Subsequent reports showed the Eugene was not, in fact, under the influence of bath salts at the time of the assault. Instead, he had only marijuana inhis system, and he was found to have a history of mental illness, including schizophrenia. Despite this revelation, the face-eating incident has beenintricately linked with bath salts, and it is used again and again as a cautionary tale against the use of these synthetic drugs.
Now, law enforcement officials in Florida are plagued by the rising popularity of a new synthetic drug. Flakka, also known as gravel, is a synthetic drugthat is structurally similar to bath salts.
The chemical name for flakka is alpha-pyrrolidinovalerophenone, or alpha-PVP. Like bath salts, it is a synthetic cathinone that, according to theNational Institute on Drug Abuse, can cause "excited delirium" which may involve "hyperstimulation,paranoia, and hallucinations that can lead to violent aggression and self-injury." The agency calls flakka an "emerging trend," and if statistics outof Broward County, Florida, are any indication, the NIDA is right. A HealthDay News article published by the Surgical Hospital of Oklahoma citesa Florida epidemiologist as saying the year 2014 saw a total of 200 flakka cases in the crime lab, compared to more than 300 in the first three monthsof 2015 alone.
So what is flakka's legal status in Oklahoma? Historically, the state has struggled to keep up with legislation prohibiting synthetic drugs. As soon asone substance or group of substances was banned, designer drug manufacturers would alter the formulation or invent a new synthetic drug using chemicalsthat had not yet been outlawed. In recent years, though, legislators have significantly expanded the number of Schedule I drugs, chemicals, and chemicalcompounds. Among these prohibited drugs is alpha-PVP. Find the full list of Schedule I controlled substances in 63 O.S. � 2-204.
Of course, even if alpha-PVP weren't specifically prohibited by Oklahoma law, federal legislators have added alpha-PVP as a Schedule I drug after firstplacing it under a temporary ban.
In Oklahoma, the home of some of the harshest drug laws in the nation, the penalties for possession of synthetic drugs is severe. A first offense of illegalpossession of a Schedule I substance is a felony punishable by 4 to 20 years in prison.
