NEWS

New narcotic spreading across Ohio

Spenser Hickey

MARION – Appearing across the country over the last three years, Alpha-PVP, known as flakka or gravel, has induced reactions of paranoia and violence in those who use it.

It’s produced synthetically, similar to MDMA, but is stronger, longer lasting and less expensive than crack cocaine and methamphetamine, and it can be ordered online from laboratories in China.

“This has probably been as sudden and as devastating as the arrival of crack cocaine in the summer of 1986,” said Jim Hall, who saw the rise of crack cocaine in his first year as a researcher in drug abuse patterns.

Hall now works at Florida’s Nova Southeastern University, and he said he has seen Alpha-PVP hit his part of the state severely.

Newark Division of Police Chief Barry Connell said his department has not seen the drug or had any issues related to it so far.

The Central Ohio Drug Enforcement Task Force has not dealt with the drug yet, either.

Connell said his CODE officers with knowledge of drug activity in Columbus have reported the drug is not having a large effect in that city to date.

Still, the drug has already been reported in most Ohio counties.

“It is certainly a drug that’s making its way around the country,” said Matt Barden, a spokesman with the Drug Enforcement Agency’s national headquarters.

The drug first began to appear in 2011, although DEA records of substances sent to government laboratories show it was only identified in more than 0.1 percent of all drug reports in one state, Nebraska.

By the end of 2012, though, it was showing up in 28 states, with 2,642 identified reports. Utah and Maine had the highest number of reports, with between 1 and 5.4 percent of all drug reports. New Hampshire, Ohio and Iowa came next, with 0.7 to 0.9 percent of all drug reports. Regionally, the Midwest had 1,518 cases, more than all other regions combined.

In 2013, the national number dropped to 2,240 identified reports. From Jan. 1, 2014, to June 30, 2014, though, there were 2,244 reports of Alpha-PVP. More recent national data is not available.

Hall described Alpha-PVP as a powerful stimulant that creates a sought-after euphoric feeling, but it comes with adverse effects such as agitation, aggressiveness, severe paranoia and disrupted thought processes.

When taken in too strong of a dose, the drug can make a user feel as if their skin is on fire and make them think people or even imaginary wild animals are trying to kill them. The stimulant also can give them heightened adrenaline, requiring several police officers to restrain them.

“If they’re lucky enough to survive, another consequence could be severe kidney failure from the hyperthermia, and that could result in having to be on dialysis for the rest of their life,” Hall said.

Kentucky

In Kentucky, newer synthetic drugs such as Alpha-PVP still carry a class-B misdemeanor offense regardless of the amount, which frustrates Lewis County Sheriff Johnny Blevins. Lewis County sits just south of the Ohio River from Adams and Scioto counties.

“Someone could drive a tractor-trailer load of it here in front of the courthouse and park it and it’s a misdemeanor,” he said.

Blevins and his deputies first began to notice the drug in their area between Thanksgiving and Christmas last year, when they began to receive calls about “bizarre behavior” particularly signs of paranoia.

“We would arrive on the scene and they were still convinced somebody was trying to kill them,” Blevins said.

Most of those addicted to Alpha-PVP were previous users of cocaine or methamphetamine, according to Blevins, but he said “it’s safe to say” that people have also shifted from heroin as well.

“If it’s not there (in your area), it will be,” Blevins said.

He recommended law enforcement officials anywhere meet with legislators to strengthen laws prohibiting Alpha-PVP, and he said that once they encounter users, they’ll quickly recognize their behavior because it’s so bizarre.

“It’s the worst drug I’ve seen in 18 years of law enforcement,” he said.

Ohio

Jill Del Greco, spokeswoman with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, said there had been some cases of Alpha-PVP being reported in 2012, although they’d dropped somewhat after the narcotic was made a Schedule I controlled substance in the state in December 2012. Alpha-PVP wasn’t made a Schedule I substance nationally until early 2014.

By 2012, however, the drug was identified in 68 Ohio counties, with nine showing amounts between 4 and 23.3 percent of total drug reports as Alpha-PVP.

Data on 2013 and 2014 Alpha-PVP amounts in Ohio were not available through the DEA’s National Forensic Laboratory Information System.

“I don’t think it’s showed up in high amounts at all,” said Jan Scaglione, a clinical toxicologist with the Poison Information Center in Cincinnati.

While the 2012 data showed relatively lower amounts of Alpha-PVP in southern Ohio, it has been present more recently. On July 22, the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office made four arrests in connection with alleged Alpha-PVP trafficking as part of a year-long investigation.

They seized 40 grams of Alpha-PVP, worth about $10,000, along with 40 firearms, digital scales, packing materials and $20,000 in cash, according to the Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, West Virginia.

“It’s probably already in our communities in low levels and we just have people that have not ended up needing health care for that because that’s how they come onto the radar,” Scaglione said.

shickey@marionstar.com

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Twitter: @SpenserHickey