The latest drug fad, flakka, is coming on with a rush. But when the thrill is gone, amputations, freak-outs and lives irrevocably altered remain in its wake.
Doctors, including Broward Health emergency room Dr. John Cunha, calls flakka "the perfect storm."
It's cheap. It's easy to get. And the high is almost immediate.
Short-term, it's disastrous, according to emergency doctors. Long-term it can be lethal.
"Some of the these people we're seeing in the hospitals are just not normal again," said Dr. Parham Eftekhari, a nephrologist who consults with hospitals throughout Broward County and is an assistant clinical professor of medicine for Nova Southeastern University.