Flakka

About

Flakka and Gravel are slang terms for α-Pyrrolidinopentiophenone^[1] (a-PVP), a synthetic stimulant used recreationally which is often compared to the designer drug bath salts. The substance has been widely covered by news media online and has spawned a number of image macros and viral videos.

Origin

The earliest known online mention of the drug was posted on the drug treatment blog Soberooms,^[6] where it was listed as a “new designer drug of abuse” and described as “the latest street version of bath salts.”

Spread

On December 2nd, 2014, YouTuber Landeater Entertainment posted a video titled “Flocka is Destroying USA,” featuring footage of a woman dancing by herself in the rain (shown below). Over the next year, the video received more than 840,000 views.

In January 2014, the United States Department of Justice listed alpha-PVP as a Schedule 1 narcotic with a temporary ban.^[2] On April 16th, 2015, Gawker^[3] published an article about Flakka, comparing news media coverage of the substance to that of “bath salts,” jenkem and “meow meow.” On April 15th, 2015, Redditor frugalrhombus submitted a news story about a naked man on flakka having sexual intercourse with a tree to the /r/FloridaMan^[4] subreddit. On April 19th, 2015, the drug chemist blog The Dose Makes The Poison^[5] published a compilation of flakka image macros (shown below).

On May 3rd, YouTuber Jenica Gregory uploaded a video titled “High on Flakka,” featuring a man crab walking on the sidewalking while repeatedly making strange noises (shown below, left). On July 21st, the wdmv362radio.com YouTube channel uploaded a video of a woman laying in a parking lot while cursing at the cameraman (shown below). Within one month, the video received over 1.1 million views and 200 comments.