SHUTTERSTOCK/VLADORLOV
Not an actual resident of Sullivan, Missouri — but maybe not far off either?
The Franklin County town — population 7,126 — allegedly witnessed some bizarre activity this weekend, with people running through streets, barking like dogs, racing into homes thinking they were being chased, breaking into a nightclub and stripping naked in order to shower in soda and fountain water, according to a brief report in the Sullivan Independent News. The town is about an hour's drive south of St. Louis on I-44.
Police believe the strange behavior is due to methamphetamine laced with a synthetic drug called flakka. According to KSDK, police say they know of at least four people who overdosed on the drug this weekend — and while police were unable to test the substance, the users' behavior points to the telltale signs of a meth/flakka combination. In addition to raising body temperatures dangerously high, flakka has a tendency to throw users into fits, according to the TV station.
Some Sullivan businesses saw the effects of the drug this weekend. Sullivan Bowl general manager Alec Ockrassa told KSDK that suspects stole more than $1,000 from his family's bowling alley this weekend when it was broken into after closing time.
“My dad came in Saturday morning ready to open the place [up] and noticed that the doors by the machine area were opened up and came in and noticed one of our cash registers was knocked over on the floor," he says.
Suspects also broke into a bar near the bowling alley, and one kicked an officer at a nearby Jack in the Box, according to KSDK. Two arrests were made over the weekend, and police say two or three were taken to a hospital.
While the effects of flakka are, shall we say, unusual, the drug is nothing new. In 2015 the Kansas City Star called it "the new killer drug." The paper noted a case where a Florida man said to be high on flakka gnawed and disfigured another man's face prior to being shot dead by police. The paper also mentioned a case where a man impaled himself while attempting to climb a fence near a Fort Lauderdale police station.
“This is the worst drug I have ever seen in my eighteen years of law enforcement across the board,” Lewis County Sheriff Johnny Bivens said at the time. “Nothing compares to this.”
The National Institute of Drug Abuse says that flakka has chemical similarities to drugs known as "bath salts," according to the Kansas City Star. The usually pink or white crystalline drug has a particularly foul odor and can be snorted, injected, eaten or vaporized using an electronic cigarette device, the institute says.
While Sullivan is small, this is not the first time it's found itself in the news for behavior that's less than savory. In 2014, a dozen girls at Sullivan High School made headlines for wearing black face during a powder-puff game.
