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It’s one of the strongest opioids in circulation, so deadly an amount smaller than a poppy seed can kill a person. Until July, when drug users in the United States started overdosing on carfentanil, the substance was best known for knocking out moose and elephants — or as a chemical weapon. Despite the dangers, Chinese vendors offer to sell carfentanil openly online, for worldwide export, no questions asked, an Associated Press investigation has found. The AP identified 12 Chinese businesses that said they would export carfentanil to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Belgium and Australia for...

Last weekend got downright bizarre in the eastern Missouri town of Sullivan, and police say they know why. Four people went on a rampage, barking and yelling, breaking into buildings, even stripping off their clothes and showering in soda water, police say. They suspect the synthetic drug flakka is behind the behavior. “We had multiple incidents this past weekend of people on some kind of substance acting out of their minds,” Sullivan Police Lt. Patrick Johnson told the Sullivan Independent News. “Barking like dogs, running up and down the street, or other farm animals, entering people’s homes, breaking into a...

A horrific story out of Florida on Tuesday has shined a spotlight on a “designer drug” whose effects can be so extreme that some call it “the devil’s drug.” A man in Tequesta, Fla., was arrested and charged with two counts of murder in the stabbing death of couple there. When police arrived on scene, the man was found crouched over the body of a male victim, tearing the flesh from the man’s face with his teeth. Police say they believe the man was likely under the influence of a drug called αlpha-Pyrrolidinopentiophenone, or as it is more commonly known,...

<p>TEQUESTA, Fla. (CNN) — A husband and wife are dead after a gruesome stabbing attack Monday in Palm Beach County, police said.</p> <p>Deputies arrived on scene after a report of a stabbing. Officers found the suspect in a driveway on top of another man, biting and removing pieces of the victim’s face with his teeth.</p>

Officials told residents of a small Colorado community not to drink or shower in tap water Thursday because one of the town’s wells may have been contaminated with THC, marijuana’s intoxicating chemical. No illnesses have been linked to the water in Hugo, a town of about 730 people some 100 miles southeast of Denver, said Lincoln County Public Health Director Susan Kelly. THC was detected in tests conducted with field kits, although other field tests were negative, sheriff’s Capt. Michael Yowell said. More definitive laboratory tests were underway, he said. …

ELLSWORTH, Maine —Maine police said they have discovered the dangerous drug Flakka for the first time. Flakka, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, is a synthetic drug similar to bath salts. It has been found commonly in the southern U.S. Ellsworth police said a test of a brown powder they seized from a man in August 2015 came back positive for Flakka. Police said, Ryan Miller, 33, of Southwest Harbor, Maine, was issued a summons for unlawful possession of a schedule W drug.

It’s a new drug. And it’s a killer. Known on the street as “flakka,” the synthetic concoction is hitting hard in Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and other parts of the country. It’s causing a rash of emergency room visits and overdose deaths. In one highly publicized Florida case, a man reportedly high on flakka gnawed on and disfigured another man’s face before he was shot to death by police. Another user tried to break down the door of a police station in Fort Lauderdale, and a few weeks later, a man impaled himself while trying to climb a fence around...

BSO says Fort Lauderdale woman found with 'flakka' in her pocketA Fort Lauderdale woman called 911 to report that a man from whom she was buying drugs took her money, according to a Broward Sheriff's Office report. Daneshia Heller, 19, was arrested Tuesday on charges of drug possession and misuse of the emergency 911 system. ccording to the arrest affidavit, Heller told the arresting deputy that a man named Zakan Allan took her $5 that she was using to buy drugs. Heller said she went to the house to buy marijuana, but he took her money and didn't give her...

A dangerous new drug is on the streets — it is called flakka or gravel or “$5 insanity.” And there’s a reason it has that last nickname. The drug spikes a user’s body temperature to dangerous levels, gives them paranoid hallucinations and makes them incredibly strong. In one case, a man in Florida ran naked down the street and then tried to have sex with a tree before being arrested. He told cops he was Thor — yes, the mythical god of thunder.

Law enforcement officials and medical personnel are warning people about the risks of a dangerous new synthetic drug that is growing in popularity in the streets of South Florida. Just last month, a man was caught on surveillance camera attempting to kick in the hurricane glass doors of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department headquarters. It was later determined that that man, 50-year-old James West, was high off of Flakka, a synthetic street drug mix with a base of bath salts that can result in paranoia, anxiety, psychosis and hallucinations. According to police, West was hallucinating and believed that 25 cars...