Cannibal drug: myth or reality?

To what extent is it true that the attacks associated with this substance are due only to its consumption?

According to data from the National Plan on Drugs, 20% of the men integrated in intervention programs to reduce the consumption of narcotic substances and who live with their partners at that time, carried out an aggression against them during the year before starting treatment.

The scientific literature relates drug use to the appearance and consolidation of various mental disorders and, in particular, psychotic episodes, psychotic episodes with fundamental elements such as hallucinations and delusions of persecution.

The social culture of drugs does not hide, however, a general ignorance of their long-term consequences as well as the adverse effects when the drug ceases its effect. Like all narcotic substances, they work with a rebound effect when their effects wear off, causing an increase in the negative impact on the very problems they seek to ameliorate. Thus Thus, it is very common to find an increase in problems related to hostility, anxiety, insomnia and eating disorders.

Drug consumption is behind many episodes of delinquency and violence due to its influence on the organism. The increase in violence, mainly among young people, may be mainly due to the following factors the appearance of new substances with a much greater stimulant power, as well as their addictive capacity.as well as their addictive capacity.

Is the label of Cannibal Drug deserved?

In recent years, the appearance of the so-called "Cannibal Drug" has been related to high-impact episodes of violence which, due to their particular virulence, filled the pages of newspapers and newscasts, raising alarms due to the striking nature of the events and the association of words so closely linked to the ideology of terror such as "cannibal" or "zombie".

News with alarming elements such as violence, brutality, bites, drug use, aggressions, carried out by what the media labeled as "predators", filled the minds of a society accustomed to the sad "normality" of drug use.

First detected in the United States, it came to light in an episode in which a young man devoured the face of a beggar and was shot by the police, and it took six shots to stop him in his "zombie" frenzy. The autopsy of the assailant revealed the consumption of a new designer drug known on the streets as "ivory wave", sold as bath salts to circumvent police controls and sold legally. and which was sold as bath salts to evade police controls and sell it legally. Its boom due to the proliferation of information through social networks, did the rest, already adopting other denominations such as MTV, magic, maddie, black rob, super coke, vanilla heaven, blessing, cannibal drug or white lightning.

Effects of methylenedioxypyroxypyrovalerone

Methylenedioxypyroxypyrovalerone, MDPV, had stimulant effects somewhat similar to cocaine, but with much greater and longer lasting power. With hallucinogenic effects, it could produce hallucinations, panic attacks and psychosis.and numbness of the mouth due to the effect of the lidocaine incorporated into the drug during its manufacture. It acts as a noradrenaline and dopamine reuptake inhibitor and is also used as a nootropic agent due to its stimulant effects on the nervous system.

MDPV has effects similar to cocaine but with a potency 10 times greater as a psychostimulant, presenting negative effects as any narcotic substance based on tachycardia, insomnia, dizziness, dyspnea, hypertension, agitation, delirium, violent behavior, pupil dilation, confusion, anxiety and suicidal behavior, hypervigilance, excitement, excessive sociability, increased sexual desire, lack of inhibition and decreased need for food or rest.

On the other hand, an article published in 2017 in the British Journal of Pharmacology, referring to a research on MDPV carried out by López-Arnau, Lujan, Duart-Castells, Pubill, Camarasa, Valverde and Escubedo, from the Neurobiology of Behaviour Research Group of the Health Sciences Behavioral Research Group of the Pompeu and Fabra University, show that the consumption of such substance favors and multiplies the effects of any other narcotic substance in the future, especially cocaine.especially cocaine.

Clandestine marketing of MDPV

MDPV moves for its acquisition in the Deep web, to which is added therefore its character of mysterious drug and not within the reach of everyoneIt is susceptible to multiple deceptions, with other much more harmful substances being sold in its place without consumers being warned of the danger they are involved in.

In 2016 in Barcelona, the sale of some candy bears impregnated with a substance sold as MDPV in some cases and as Nexus in others was detected, being in reality another drug called 25N-NBOME or also "the bomb", responsible for the death in the United States and Australia of several deaths caused by its consumption.

Multi-casual assaults

Stimulant drugs can undoubtedly induce in people predisposed to episodes of aggression or violence, but in the case of MDPV it is not possible to establish a pattern that would lead us to associate it with cannibalistic behavior, especially in view of the lack of rigor and adulteration in the substances observed in this illegal market.

Organizations such as the International Narcotics Control Board report that behind 46% of the episodes of serious violence associated with drug use are a history of health problems. are a history of previous mental health problems..

By way of conclusion, we must mention the dangerous link established between drugs and entertainment, in which the aim is to push human limits to the maximum of vital risk, where on many occasions the game is lost.