Synthetic drugs such as spice started to appear in Gainesville years ago, and now a deadly substance called flakka is making its way into the community.
During a speech in front of the Board of County Commissioners and about 20 audience members Tuesday morning, Alachua County Lt. Todd Kelly addressed these synthetic drugs, focusing primarily on flakka — a drug formally known as alpha-PVP.
"We’re trying to educate the community about what this is," Kelly said.
Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell said the presentation is part of a larger public safety campaign highlighting the dangers of certain man-made drugs.
"We’re going to stay tapped into this and we’re going to stay ahead of it," she said.
The presentation noted a spike in Broward County’s flakka cases from zero in 2013 to 275 between January and May of this year. This year, 40 flakka deaths in Broward overwhelmed hospitals and police, Kelly said.
Symptoms include dehydration, hallucinations, excited delirium and eventually death.
Alachua County is far from epidemic levels, but despite Alachua County’s ban on synthetic drugs, they still end up in residents’ hands.
Kelly said Gainesville authorities went undercover and bought from dealers who advertised their product as MDMA or molly. Lab tests returned last month revealed the drugs were actually flakka.
He said synthetic drugs are usually ordered from China, where labs create products that mimic things such as cocaine, marijuana or molly.
"If you have a fixation for smoking or injecting or snorting, all of these synthetics are available in that format," he said.
The problem, Kelly said, is the risk synthetic drugs create for users and their community. He said certain drugs send the user into an excited delirium.
In this state, Tasers and batons are often useless to officers, who can’t handcuff the user for everyone’s safety.
It usually takes several officers to hold the person down until emergency medical services can be applied, Kelly said.
Deputy Chief Harold Theus of Alachua County Fire Rescue said his teams use two medications to calm down patients suffering from excited delirium.
"Our primary goal certainly is our personal safety and our crew’s safety," he said.
Users might hallucinate and fear a threat that doesn’t exist, causing them to lash out against anyone who tries to help – all while becoming extremely dehydrated, Kelly said.
He said deputies are trained to respond to drug overdoses as medical emergencies before acting on possible crimes.
"If you see something like this, don’t sit there and video it so you can put it on YouTube," he said. "Call 911 and get this guy some help."
After the presentation, Alachua County Commissioner Robert Hutchinson condoned educating the community rather than simply punishing drug abusers.
"We threaten them with legal sanctions, but that seems to have very little effect," he said.
Hutchinson then made a motion to play Kelly’s presentation on Community 12 Television, which passed unanimously.
Contact Giuseppe Sabella at gsabella@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @Gsabella
- Street name for the chemical Pyrrolidinopentiophenone (alpha-PVP)
- Sometimes sold as molly in Gainesville
- Derived from Spanish word "flaca", meaning skinny
- Sold as powder, rocks or pills
- Symptoms include:
- Hallucinations
- Fear of looming danger
- "Super human strength"
- Feeling of being on fire
- Excited delirium (days after taking the drug)
