‘Cannibal Drug’ Being Sold In Spanish Party Destinations

In various Spanish holiday destinations the nasty ‘flesh-eating’ bath salt drugs are being sold on the street. Police say that dealers are trying to test the popularity of the drug with clubbers in popular party islands like Ibiza and Mallorca.

MDPV

The drug officially called Methylenedioxypyrovalerone, or MDPV, is being sold to party-goers in Ibiza and Mallorca, police reports state. The suitably nicknamed ‘Cannibal’ is an hallucinogenic that causes severe health problems for the user and poses a potential risk for any bystanders of the drug-taker. Although not actual bath salts, the drug resembles the product and is being sold under that name, but has a far different and more dangerous chemical structure than the actual bathing product.

Miami Tragedy

MDPV, when taken in high doses, spurs users into violent outbreaks of aggression, paranoia and panic attacks. In 2012 the life-threatening danger of the drug was shown in full effect, after a user in Miami suddenly started to attack and bite people at random and eventually devoured three-quarters of the face of a bystander. The Miami cannibal was shot dead by the police.

In more recent news, a man in Mallorca started biting people on the beach after taking the drug. It reportedly took 10 policemen, who also started to bite, to get the deranged man under control. In Ibiza many users have been hospitalized. Medical staff says that heavy users acted “more like zombies than patients”.

Amateur picture taken of the Mallorca biter

Detection and similar drugs

MDPV is categorised as a schedule I substance under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, placing it in the same category as heroin and cocaine. Bath salts are a collective term for multiple, similar narcotics like Methylone, Mephedrone, 3-methoxymethcathinon, 3-fluoromethcathinone, and 4-fluoromethcathinon.

MDPV cannot be smelled by drug detection dogs and is extremely hard to detect, since it can be packaged as lookalike products such as  fertilizer or insect repellent. For more information on the use, effects and characteristics of the drug, click here.

Source: IBTimes