Sharp rize in "zombie drug" flakka-related incidents in Netherlands

The use of the extremely addictive drug flakka is increasing and the “zombie drug” is causing more problems in the Netherlands. Last year, Dutch cops responded to 995 incidents involving flakka users, up from 614 a year earlier, Omroep WNL reported based on figures from the police.

Flakka’s nickname of “zombie drug” comes from many American videos showing people behaving like zombies - convulsing and rolling in the street, or even attacking other people.

Last year, the Dutch police responded an average of almost three times per day because flakka users were causing problems. Reports included vandalism, nuisance, theft, burglaries, and stabbings. The drug is especially popular in the Zeeland-West-Brabant region, which accounted for 556 of last year’s incidents.

Flakka-related incidents have been on the rise in the region since 2018, Freek Pecht, the synthetic drugs coordinator for the Zeeland-West-Brabant police, told the broadcaster. “These are people with inexplicable behavior who cause nuisance. For example, people walk the street at night - naked or not - and then sneak into the gardens of local residents or business premises.”

“If a flakka user is in delirium, it is very difficult for the police to calm or control such a person,” Pecht said. “We know of examples where the police had to jump on a suspect with not one, but five or six police officers to ultimately put him in handcuffs.”

Last week, the Dutch Opium Act was amended to ban alpha-PIHP, a previously legal variant of flakka. Pecht called that wonderful, but added that new variants, changed just enough to not fall under the ban, will soon emerge. “In the short term, the criminalization has an effect, but in the long term, we are just waiting for the day when a new flakka variant appears again.”

The Dutch government has a law in the making that will ban entire groups of new psychoactive substances. That should prevent criminals from changing synthetic drugs slightly and being able to sell them legally again. The bill still needs to be approved by the Eerste Kamer, the Dutch Senate.