The dangerous synthetic drug flakka has made its way to Maine.
According to WCSH-TV, Ellsworth Police said that back on Aug. 30, 2015, officers found three people in a Walmart parking lot acting suspicious. Police stopped their vehicle and found one of the people inside in possession of a brown powder that they initially thought was heroin.
The powder was sent to a lab in Augusta for testing after it came back negative for heroin, and it came back positive for ALHPA-PHP, better known as flakka. It's the first time Ellsworth Police have come across the drug.
Flakka is a more potent form of bath salts that is highly addictive and can be deadly if taken in high doses. It has led to a rash of unusual incidents in Southern Florida and other parts of the country. One Florida sheriff dubbed it "the $5 insanity drug" after a series of incidents including a mother who abandoned her baby, a woman who jumped off a bridge, and a man who was caught running through the streets wearing nothing but his sneakers.
What makes the drug even more troubling is how inexpensive and easy it is to obtain. It can be smoked, snorted, injected or swallowed.
