Doctors express concern over synthetic drug that can induce \u2018excited delirium\u2019<\/h3>\n
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\u201cI am cautious in attributing it to flakka or another drug from the same category,\u201d Hall, also a sentinel community epidemiologist (SCE) for the University of Maryland\u2019s National Drug Early Warning System (NDEWS), told FoxNews.com.<\/p>\n
An absence of hypothermia likely rules out those drugs but could point to something similar, he said. Police in the Palm Beach area reported a similar case Sunday of a teen seemingly with superhuman strength and high tolerance of pain smashing through a glass window. The unidentified drug appears to be some kind of bath salt, the Palm Beach Post reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Since the initial breaking news, various media<\/a> have named steroids and unidentified chemicals possibly found in the victims\u2019 garage as additional suspects.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvidently, human growth hormone (HGH) steroid use is done in cycles\u2014 several weeks on, several weeks off\u2014 and it\u2019s when person is off the steroids that they can have an episode that can trigger the \u2018roid rage,\u2019\u201d Hall said.<\/p>\n
Harrouff\u2019s case isn\u2019t the first time zombie-like behavior has been associated with flakka and bath salts. A 2012 incident in South Florida involving a man nicknamed \u201cthe Miami causeway cannibal,\u201d is often pegged to flakka. But the case actually involved a bad trip on conventional marijuana. The drug caused Rudy Eugene, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, to hallucinate, strip down and streak, and bite Ronald Poppo<\/a>, a homeless man, in the face on the MacArthur Causeway in Miami.<\/p>\n
Marijuana can trigger an episode of schizophrenia in someone prone to the disorder, and Eugene had a history of heavy use of regular and synthetic marijuana despite testing positive only for the former, Hall said.<\/p>\n
Wade Harrouff, Austin Harrouff\u2019s father, told the Post<\/a> that mental illness was to blame in his son\u2019s case, and that the family has a history of schizophrenia.<\/p>\n
According to the NDEWS, reports of synthetic cathinone seizures increased by about 18 percent from 2014 to 2015\u2014 before the Chinese ban went into effect. The NDEWS, which draws data from the DEA\u2019s National Forensic Laboratory Information System (NFLIS), won\u2019t have 2016 drug reports available until later this year, Erin Artigiani, deputy director for policy at the Center for Substance Abuse Research at the University of Maryland, told FoxNews.com.<\/p>\n
After the ban went into effect, South Florida saw a \u201cdramatic\u201d decline in the availability of alpha-PVP and its consequences, including related ER visits, excited delirium cases and admittances to addiction treatment centers, Hall said.<\/p>\n
At four major hospitals in Broward County, medics observed about 12 alpha-PVP cases per day in summer 2015. By December, two months into the ban, cases were down to two per day, Hall said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2016, they have virtually seen none,\u201d he said, adding that there were 63 alpha-PVP-related deaths from September 2014 \u2013 2015, and none after that.<\/p>\n
However, some parts of the U.S. are still seeing a rise in flakka use, albeit merely on a quantitative level. In Atlanta, for example, NDEWS SCE Dr. Brian Dew, chair of counseling and psychological services at Georgia State University, has seen a handful of flakka seizures crop up this year.<\/p>\n
But, he said, \u201cWe\u2019re starting in such a small place that even a few arrests will indicate an increase. It\u2019s difficult to know whether it\u2019s going up or down, or becoming a growing threat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Related Image<\/h2>\n
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