Designer Drugs

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Designer Drugs[]

Designer drugs, also called 'research chemicals', are psychoactive substances specifically synthesized to circumvent existing laws prohibiting certain recreational drugs. Most designer drugs are manufactured and marketed to mimic common drugs of abuse such as marijuana, cocaine and LSD. Most designer drugs are manufactured in China, where they are sold overseas mainly via the internet, marketed as other products ('plant food,' 'incense,' 'bath salts,' and 'glass cleaner') to avoid being seized by customs. In the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, designer drugs were sold in smoke shops, liquor stores and gas stations until 2010 (UK) and 2011 in some US states. It wasn't until 2013 that Bath Salts were banned outright.

"Bath Salts"[]

Bath Salts are probably the best known designer drug, and also the one most commonly associated with zombie-like behavior. Bath Salts is the street name for the chemical 3, 4-Methylenedioxypyrovalerone, or MDPV. MDPV is a powerful psychostimulant which functions by both inhibiting the reuptake of seratonin, dopamine and norepinephrine and forcing the brain to produce dopamine and norepinephrine in larger quantities. By inducing both of these neurological responses, MDPV mimics the effects of both cocaine and methamphetamine. MDPV was first synthesized in the 1960s and was prescribed clinically to treat chronic fatigue. The drug was deemed unsuitable for medical use due to the high degree of abuse in patients and the bizarre behavioral symptoms. MDPV was first documented as a recreational drug in 2005.

Synthetic Marijuana AKA "Spice" "K2" "Incense"[]

One of the more common designer drugs, synthetic marijuana consists of synthetic THC analogues sprayed on an inert plant matter to facilitate smoking from a marijuana or tobacco pipe. Many THC analogues have been developed as appetite stimulants for the treatment of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, many of which also produce the euphoric or relaxed state characteristic of marijuana. Unlike marijuana however, synthetic THC can produce unusual side effects including seizures, paranoia and aggression.

Zombie-like Behavior Attributed To Designer Drugs[]

Bath Salts:[]

The symptoms of accute bath salt intoxication are described as similar to the behavior of a Rage Zombie -- extreme aggression, paranoia, suicidal and homicidal thoughts and actions, inability to feel pain and resistance to nonlethal deterrents.

November 27, 2009 -- A man using a new drug hallucinated for 18 hours and ended up removing his own testicles because he believed centipedes were crawling over his body and biting him.

On January 21, 2011, Pamela Higgins attacked her 71 year old mother with a machete after snorting a packet of Black Silk brand bath salts. Higgins ex-boyfriend subsequently told police he had left her after she had tried to knife him in his sleep.

On Feb. 27, 2011, Seth Thomas Sanders abandoned his car at 1:00 AM and broke into a house, where he was confronted and forced out by the homeowner. While fleeing, Sanders damaged a State Police vehicle. He explained his rampage by saying that he was being chased by electricity.

On 3/10/2011, Ryan Foley of Scranton, PA, broke into a monastery and attacked a priest while under the influence of bath salts. At 2:42 AM police responded to an assault in progress at St. Anne's Monastery. According to police, there was no sign of forced entry and the building was secure, making the assault all the more mysterious. "The entire building was completely secure. We have no idea how he gained entry." Said Detective Jennifer Gerity. When Foley was interviewed by police he was disoriented and believed it was 2008. Foley went on to tell police a bizarre story: He and a friend had been driving to pick up his belongings from his estranged spouse's residence, and were followed by "Four or five cars that tried to run him off the road."

On 3/20/2011, Robert Hodospar and Amber Sutton nearly killed their 5 year old Daughter while stabbing "90 people living in their walls" while under the influence of bath salts.

In April 2011, after being pulled over by a state trooper, David “Doc” Stewart, who was an Army medic and had completed two tours of duty in Iraq, shot his girlfriend, Kristy Sampels, and then killed himself. It later emerged that Stewart’s 5-year-old son had been beaten and asphyxiated to death earlier in the day. Toxicology reports revealed that both Stewart and Sampels were high on bath salts at the time of their deaths, and Stewart had a jar of them in his pocket.

On May First, 2011, Mark Thompson of West Virginia was found wearing women's lingerie, covered in blood. Next to him were a pornographic magazine and a neighbor's dead goat. According to Thompson, he had been snorting bath salts for three days when he kidnapped, sexually abused and killed the animal.

In July of 2011, Johnny Salazar was watching his two young sons one Sunday morning in Arizona, while the rest of his family was at church. At one point, he noticed that his 5-year-old was touching the Bible and determined that the boy must be possessed by a demon. He then used a cigarette lighter to burn the child’s hands and wrists. Salazar was taking bath salts at the time. Salazar’s mother said the burns did not require medical attention and noted that Salazar recently had broken up with the child’s mother. “He had a hard time accepting it, so he turned to bath salts,” she said.

On July 20th, 2011, Austin Jones of Pasadena Texas attacked a woman and her baby in a Walmart. He savagely shook the baby while screaming at the woman. He was later tased and subdued in the parking lot, where he confessed to snorting bat salts.

On Feb. 11, 2012 Eric Scott, 47, who was having a bad trip on bath salts, asked neighbors in Milton, Fla., to call 911 to help him get medical attention. When police arrived, he was cursing to himself and threw a flashlight at a mailbox and asked to be shot. The officers decided to handcuff him to await medical help. Unable to move his hands, Scott bit the police car and dragged his teeth across the hood, leaving teeth marks in the vehicle and causing $600 worth of damage.

On May 27th 2012 Wayne Carter of Hackensack New Jersey barricaded himself in his home with a knife and threatened to harm himself. When a SWAT team kicked down the door, the found Carter naked, stabbing himself in the stomach repeatedly. He also stabbed himself in the neck and legs. Police tried to subdue him with pepper spray, but it had no effect. At this point, Carter began throwing bits of his intestines at police, who retreated and called in backup.

In June of 2012, 20-year-old Robert William White of Glenndale California consumed bath salts dissolved in soda befor walking up to a woman he did not know and saying "I hate you and I'm going to kill you today." White then struck the woman with a shovel. He fled to an appartment and barricaded himself inside, and was only removed after being dazed and shot with a rubber bullet while screaming "God loves all of you!"

On June 2, 2012 Carl Jacquneaux went to his ex-wife’s house and repeatedly bit her husband, Todd Credeur, “removing flesh the size of a quarter” from his face, according to an affidavit. After Credeur sprayed bug spray in his attacker’s face to get away, Jacquneaux went to a neighboring house, where he demanded a gun at knifepoint. He got his hands on the gun, but was arrested at the end of the street. Police did not perform any blood tests, but a friend of Credeur’s said she believed Jacquneaux was on bath salts during the attack.

On June 6, 2012, a 35 year old woman named Tracey Mabb, under the influence of bath salts stripped, exposing her breasts, buttocks and genitalia in the middle of a Miami intersection, screaming "I don't give a f***."

On Tuesday, June 12, 2012, Shane Shuyler, a homeless junkie wearing only boxer shorts, was reported to have been stalking a 3 year old girl on a Miami playground. The child's mother said Shuyler introduced himself to her daughter, saying: "Hi pretty girl, I want to stick it in you." He also hid under a slide and stalked another family with children before police arrived and arrested him. According to Police, Shuyler had bath salts in his posession at the time of his arrest.

Also on June 12, 2012, a naked man sprinted around the Hollywood Hills, He crawled on top of cars and tried to bite the antenna off the hood of a silver toyota. Police found him spread eagled on the ground making "airplane noises." When they approached, he dove into a shrubbery screaming that he was "on drugs." The pulled him out of the bushes near Orlando Bloom's house, where he yelled "Im gonna roll down the hill, Let me inch like an inch worm! let me inch like an inch worm!"

On June 14th 2012, Karl Laventure stumbled out of the woods at a golf course in Georgia while naked, swinging a golf club and screaming. Police described him as having "superhuman strength." Officer Ross Hancock sprayed the man in the face with pepper spray, but it had no effect: "He didn't even wipe his eyes, he just kept them open," he said. The officer tased him, which momentarily dropped him to the ground, but did not stop him. "We had to Tase him approximately five more times on scene to get him down. It took several officers to hold him down to get him cuffed," Hancock said. All the while Laventure kept repeating that he wanted to eat people. "I'm'a eat you. Four Four. Oh God. Don't make me eat you," Laventure says in a video of his arrest. Another witness quotes Laventure as saying "Ima'a eat you. Im'a eat you. I don't wanna eat you but I will." According to other witnesses, he mumbled about deceased rap legends Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, made animal noises, and continued threatening to eat the officers and bystanders. Laventure continued raving and struggling with no sign of tiredness all the way to the hospital, where he was held down by orderlies and tranquilized. He received a total of 14 shocks from a taser.

On 15/06/2012, Pamela McCarthy stripped naked and choked her 3 year old son while under the influence of bath salts. McCarthy was photographed several times sprinting naked through the streets of Munnsvill, New York, pursuing her intimate partner, as he fled with their child. Witness Heather Ames said: “We heard growling … and a kid crying so we went outside and opened up the door, There (McCarthy) was, lying on the ground holding her 3-year-old kid in her arms and just beating him.” Ames went on to describe the savagery with which McCarthy resisted any attempt to calm her down: “She scratched me in the face, then she grabbed my hair.” Another witness, David Bridge, described the woman's superhuman strength and invulnerability to pain: “I saw her hit concrete after falling down a flight of stairs and got up like nothing happened.” McCarthy chased and assaulted several bystanders, before attacking one of her dogs: “She was still chasing people, just running back and forth around the street and she got hold of one of her dogs and she was rolling around on the ground with her legs wrapped around it, she was strangling the dog.” one witness said. Police used mace in an attempt to subdue her, but the chemical spray had no effect. Officers at the scene used a taser to subdue her, but even then, it took a State Trooper, a firefighter, and two bystanders to handcuff her, even after receiving electric shocks from a taser.

On June 21st, 2012, 26 year old Charles Baker broke into his girlfriend's house in palmetto Florida, yelling and stripping off his clothes. Baker would not calm down, and began smashing furniture. A neighbor tried to intervene, and baker bit the good Samaritan on the arm, ripping out a large chunk of the mans bicep. The man was able to hold him down until police arrived, but when they tried to arrest him, he tensed his muscles and attacked them, screaming incoherently. He was finally subdued after being tazed four times.

On June 23, 2012, an unamed Utica NY woman was arrested in a bar after trying to bite the face of a police officer, screaming "I want to kill someone and eat them!" That same day, police were summoned to a house where a young man on bath salts had ripped a car door off its hinges and was punching the body.

On Sunday, June 24, 2012, Police in Toronto were called to remove a "strange-acting" man from a condo in Etobicoke. When he refused to cooperate, the officers tried to arrest him, at which point he slammed his palm into one officer's face, breaking his nose, and broke the other's wrist.

On Tuesday, June 26, 2012, at 1:30 AM police in Calgary responded to reports of a naked man smashing his face into a fence in an alley. The man was found on the ground covered in blood and unable to comply with orders. Police described him as having superhuman strength and could not feel pain. It took five police officers and several paramedics to finally get the man under control. Although none were found in his posession, doctors believe the man was under the influence of either crystal methamphetamine or bath salts.

On june 29th, 2012, John Brigham snorted bath salts and crashed his stolen blue Prius into the side of a Porsche at 1:30 in the afternoon, causing a 3 car pileup and severely injuring the driver, who was thrown from the vehicle, and two others. Brigham exited the car and ripped off all his clothes except for his socks. He climbed ontop of the car and danced. He then began chanting and singing. Brigham approached another Prius, still naked and singing, where he forcefully pulled a woman out of the care and got inside. He then drove the stolen care north. He drove the vehicle into oncoming traffic going westbound in the eastbound lane, hitting 3 other vehicles,injuring 4 people, breaking a pregnant woman's legs, and rolling the Prius before being ejected through the windsheild. Despite his injuries he tried to steal an SUV, but was arrested.

On July 3rd, 2012, Matthew Hammond snorted bath salts. His mother called the police, telling them he was walking around the house with a large knife acting "schizophrenic." When police arrived, Hammond had feces in his mouth. He charged at the patrol car, banged on the windows, and challenged the officers to fight. He had to be tased several times to subdue him.

On April 10, 2013, a bath salt user in a Los Angeles Home Depot picked up a pair of handsaws, one described as being designed to cut sheetrock, and tried to amputate his own arms. In front of horrified onlookers, the man sawed down to the bone, where he had to stop, most likely since all muscle connecting his limbs had been severed. The man would have died, had it not been for the quick thinking of an off duty paramedic who used improvised tourniquets to stop the bleeding.

On May 18th, 2013, a teenager in Buffalo New York wrecked his car and then entered a state described by some witnesses as "zombie-like" and others as "a seizure." A video of the strange encounter went viral, called "This teenager just tried to eat me." In the video, the teen can be seen rolling on the Ground, growling. He sometimes appears to breakdance. Every time the State Trooper on site approaches him, the youth lashes out violently. Prior to the filming of the video, the teen had driven through a fence, a house, and into a truck. It ultimately took 7 police officers to get the young man under control.

On September 9th 2014 Timothy Jones Jr. was arrested with Bath Salts and synthetic marijuana in his posession under suspicion of having murdered his 5 children. Their remains, wrapped in plastic, were found in Alabama, abandoned off a dirt road.

In March of 2015, Floridan James West smoked bath salts and entered a deranged state. He attempted to break into the Ft. Lauderdale Police station, throwing boulders at the hurricane proof windows and acrobatically "mule kicking" them.

On March 9th 2015 Darren Morrison smoked a type of bath salts known as Flakka and brutally beat an 82 year old woman to death. According to his sister, Morrison had been talking to his brother about clothes, when he suddenly said: “That’s messed up, bro. I ain’t gonna let nobody kill me.” He then went into the fetal position on the floor. A few minutes later, he left the house, walked up to a random door, and began savagely beating the octogenarian who answered his knock. She suffered numerous injuries including multiple fractures to the right side of her body, a fractured neck, severe lacerations to the right side of her head and lower leg that required medical staples and internal bleeding to her brain. While en route to the victims house, morrison had been running in and out of traffic. When police arrived they found the woman's house in total disarray, with blood smeared on the walls. Morrison said he had been drinking "sweet liquor" and smoking bath salts.

On April 15, 2015, Kenneth Crowder took off his clothes, proclaimed himself God, and had sexual relations with a tree. When police confronted him, he reasserted that he was God and approached the officer in a threatening manner. The officer shot Crowder with a taser, which had no effect. Crowder pulled the probes out of his body and screamed again that he was God. The officer tased him a second time, with the same effect. Crowder said he was Thor and tried to stab the officer with his badge.

In july of 2015, a Russian punk rocker named "Pussy" on bath salts murdered his girlfriend, stabbing her 53 times, then had sex with her severed head while wearing her dress.

On August 03, 2015, Regina Dilworth tried to drown her 9 month old son in an irrigation canal after injecting bath salts and dilaudid. She stopped random bystanders and tried to "give" them her 4 year old daughter. Dilworth further stated to the detective she heard voices telling her that her children were possessed and she needed to "find God."

On August 6th 2016, Nico Gallo (19) experienced an "uncontrollable urge" to break into a house and attack the occupants after taking a mixture of bath salts and LSD. He described "irresistible forces" that made him commit the crime. After taking the substances, he approached a house belonging to a woman and her adult son, tried to open the door and shouted: "Sorry, I'm going to die." he then did what he described as "a cannonball" through the window. He grabbed the woman by the shoulders and shook her. Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said Gallo showed “extreme strength and a high tolerance to pain.” The occupants of the house hit him multiple times in the head with a metal baseball bat, which had little effect.

On Aug. 15 2016, Frat boy amateur bodybuilder and youtube personality Austin Harrouff committed a grisly double murder in Florida. The incident shook Florida residents because of the shocking similarity to the 2012 "Causeway Cannibal" attack, in which Rudy Eugene stripped off his clothes and attacked an elderly homeless man, eating 70% of his face before being shot by police. As confirmed by security camera footage, Harrouff, who went by "AustiFrosti" on youtube, had been eating dinner at 8:30 PM with his parents in Duffy's Restaurant in Jupiter. Harrouff became agitated when the food took too long to arrive. An argument ensued, and Harrouff stormed out of the restaurant and walked five miles to the home of a middle aged couple that he did not know. At this point Harrouff's parents called the police, giving them Harrouff's description: white shorts, a blue polo and a red Make America Great Again baseball cap. Harrouff would later tell Dr. Phil that he had left the restaurant because of a threatening demonic being called "Daniel," and that he had been fleeing the creature when he encountered his victims, John Stevens and Michelle Mishcon. He claimed that he had been heading home to his father's house, an assertion backed up by the geographic location of the victims in relation to the perpetrator's father's house. According to Harrouff's mother, he left the restaurant once previously, going to her house where she had to physically stop him from drinking salad oil. A few moments later, she caught him eating a bowl of salad oil and cheese. When Harrouff arrived at Stevens and Mishcon's residence, the two victims, they were sitting in their garage talking. Harrouf says he does not remember anything after Michelle screamed. From police reports and the Medical examiner;s report, we can gather that he took off his clothes, stabbed the couple repeatedly with a pocket knife, bludgeoned them with a blunt object, cut and hacked them with vaarious tools, and drank several caustic liquids, such as gasoline or drain cleaner. By the time neighbor Jeff Fisher arrived, Harrouff was naked, covered in blood, crouched over Stevens' body, tearing chunks of flesh off the mans face and abdomen with his teeth. Michelle was already dead. Fisher tried to pull Harrouff off the dead man, but was stabbed multiple times for his efforts. Fisher called the police. When officers arrived, they tried tasing the bloody naked attacker, with no effect. No amount of punchi ng or kicking could even make the zombie look up from his ghoulish meal. When a police dog was set on the murderer, he paid it no attention even while it bit and hung on to him. When they finally restrained Harrouff, he was bleeding from the lungs and esophagus, sufferring multiple organ failure, and almost dead. In the ensuing investigation, it was revealed that Harrouff had undergone a dramatic mental decline since joining a fraternity. Although he denied using drugs, neighbors saw him "partying" in his back yard frequently, and his instagram account featured videos from wild "animal house" style parties. His youtube account "AustiFrosti," was full of bizarre videos in whigh Harrouff puts on different accents, acting like different people, seemingly channeling Pee Wee Herman, and talking about bodybuilding. In several videos, he talks specifically about synthetic drugs and steroids, stating that he "doesn't need them anymore." Although he never flat out acknowledges using designer drugs, they figure into his monologues frequently. According to his parents, in the week leading up to the incident, he talked frequently about being immortal, having super powers, and "being here for a purpose." A subsequent search of his internet history revealed searches such as "marijuana withdrawal," "how to sell your soul to satan," "signs of steroids," "positive hypnosis," "hearing things in my sleep," "eye of horus," "Is Barack Obama related to past presidents" "How do I undo Tony Robbins" "Why am I losing my emotions?" as well as searches related to the pineal gland and the illuminati.

On July 30th 2017, an unnamed British teenager snorted "Meow Meow" (UK slang for bath salts) and went on a deranged rampage. Police responding to the scene found the young man hanging from the window. They discovered moments later that he had sliced off his own penis. He had also stabbed his mother.

Synthetic Marijuana AKA "Spice" "K2" "Incense"[]

Synthetic Marijuana has cause zombie-like behavior as well.

On june 29th, 2012, the same day as John Brigham's bath salt fueled jarjacking rampage, 27 year old David Martin was filmed during his arrest after he stripped naked and began assaulting people at random using "kung fu" like maneuvers. He was compared to Chuck Norris by witnesses, when he was apprehended once, only to escape, screaming and naked, to continue his assault. When first police were summoned to the scene, Martin was wandering around naked screaming at passing cars. when police approached, he fled, punching passers by as he went. He was tased, but as is often the case with designer drug users, the electricity had no effect whatsoever, and he managed to punch one officer in the face. After being tased again and tackled, he managed to slip free and continued fighting. One witness said "Holy s**t man, he's a ninja! No way, He's strong, He's gotta be on something." After finally being arrested, he admitted to having smoked a lot of spice.

On August 18, 2014, a Georgia woman stole a police car and let police on a high speed pursuit before causing a high speed collision at 130 mph.

On Thursday, May 28, 2015, An unidentified man took off his clothes and jumped out of his fifth storey window in New York, after drinking beer and smoking K4 brand spice with his girlfriend. He died the next morning.

On Nov. 23, 2015, 32-year-old Chase Alan Sherman smoked spice and attacked his father, mother, anf girlfriend, savagely biting them. Police used a taser to subdue him, but the electricity put him into cardiac arrest, and he died en route to the hospital.[]

In Washington, the Metropolitan Police Department said a man believed to be suffering the effects of synthetic marijuana carried out gruesome fatal stabbing on a Metro train in full view of subway riders on July 4.2015 Toxicology tests haven't been made public in the case.

Brittany Ciccotti dumped her 4 year old child in a garbage can after smoking synthetic marijuana.