Flakka - "gravel" - is all the rage with amateur druggies in Florida and Texas and wherever else people who have watched a lot of "Breaking Bad" do home chemistry. It is made from alpha-PVP, which is a chemical cousin of cathinone, found in bath salts.
Cathinone is banned but alpha-PVP is not, because it is not the same compound. Like bath salts, some people have become prone to violent behavior. And usage is up almost 800 percent because it is cheap, $5 a pop, note Jessica Orwig and Erin Brodwin at Business Insider.
If you want to know why good cold medicine keeps getting put behind the pharmacy counter before drug companies just give up on it, now you know; American adults lead the world in science literacy and that includes a giant chunk of people who understand chemistry. They can turn anything into a new drug.
Yay science, but I wish I could still buy Drixoral. Jerks.
