A designer drug known as "flakka" has been called one of the most potent stimulants to emerge in recent years.
But new research out of The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla suggests it's no worse than a previous chemical cousin.
Flakka's active ingredient, alpha-PVP, is a synthetic twist on the naturally occurring stimulant cathinone. That puts it in the same class as "bath salts," another lab-derived drug blamed for violent outbursts (sometimes incorrectly) in recent years.
Headlines out of Florida have attributed all kinds of bizarre behavior to flakka. Users have reportedly claimed to be the Norse god Thor, gone streaking through busy intersections and even tried to break into police stations.
Such sensational reports have led some media outlets to claim flakka is even worse than its predecessor.
But Michael Taffe, an associate professor at The Scripps Research Institute, wanted proof. So he and his colleagues compared the two drugs head-to-head in rats.
The rats received either flakka or bath salts by pressing a small lever. By tracking their persistence, the researchers were able to plot out the addictive potential of both drugs.
"Basically, the curves overlap," Taffe said. "From this we can conclude that the potencies are about the same."
It wasn't an obvious discovery. The chemical differences between bath salts and flakka actually mirror the chemical differences between ecstasy and meth. Sometimes drugs can have similar chemical structures but profoundly different effects.
Taffe said even though flakka isn't necessarily worse than bath salts, it shouldn't be considered mild.
"Bath salts are bad enough," he said. "Our first study on this topic showed it's much more potent as a drug than methamphetamine."
Taffe said the last four years have seen an explosion in synthetic stimulants as drug makers keep trying to stay one step ahead of the law.
