When details of an attack allegedly involved a Florida State University student who, according to police, stabbed an innocent couple to death and later tried to eat the face of one of the victims were released earlier, many media chnnels pointed to flakka, a synthetic cathinone similar to bath salts that can cause violent, aggressive behavior. But Austin Harrouff, the 19 years old suspect who according to authorities has killed John Stevens, 59 years old, and Michelle Mischon, 53 years old, outside their home in Jupiter, Florida, had taken the synthetic drug alpha-PVP. Data suggests that his case  wasn’t representative of a growing problem nationwide.

Melvin Patterson, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration, told , “In all synthetics, as well as cathinones, as well as bath salts, we’ve noticed a reduction— I think to something to the tune of 30 percent since October 2015,”

The Chinese government banned production of flakka and 115 other synthetic drugs, effectively stunting exports to the United States. Jim Hall, an epidemiologist at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale and a nationally recognized expert on flakka and other illicit drugs has informed that inspite of  seizing flakka from some European countries like the Netherlands, Poland and Slovenia, China has been the biggest exporter of flakka to the United States.

Harrouff’s case wasn’t the first time that zombie-like behavior has been associated with flakka and bath salts. A 2012 incident in South Florida which involved a man nicknamed “the Miami causeway cannibal,” 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 homeless man, in the face on the MacArthur Causeway in Miami.

By Prakriti Neogi