The drug epidemic in the United States is known to take many forms and to be far-reaching. For Melinda Ford, a resident in Waynesburg, her first experience witnessing the community’s illness was right in her neighborhood, Halloween weekend.
On a cold, rainy evening, Ford and her family heard an “agonizing” scream, just outside their front door.
“[My husband] opened the door and the guy was, like, crawling on all fours up onto our porch,” said Ford.
Ford called the police, and was surprised to hear no answer—even after trying again and again. Luckily, she said, one of her neighbors was able to get through, and officers arrived at the scene quickly.
Ford said the trespasser was “not verbally responding, just yelling,” but began to run away once he saw the police.
The officers chased him around the house, where they got him to the ground and cuffed him—Ford recorded the encounter and posted it on social media.
Reflecting on the experience, Ford said it was clear the trespasser was highly intoxicated, but she had never seen anything like this before.
“You see videos on the internet on these other drugs like flakka,” she said. “I’ve seen people on heroin and its very different—this guy was just, like, raging.”
Regarding the video that Ford posted to Facebook, many viewers speculated that the trespasser was intoxicated from flakka or a different hallucinogen.
According to multiple internet sources, flakka is a synthetic street drug made from the chemical compound alpha-PVP, a similar substance to the drug found in bath salts.
But officially, Greene County Drug and Alcohol Services has no statistics to confirm cases of flakka in the area, while Brian Tennant, Greene County sheriff, was unable to be reached for comment Tuesday.
Kira Sisk, director of DAP, said her office tracks the drug of choice for all citizens who seek care.
“Here at our office, we are not seeing an increase in people getting level of care assessments identifying flakka as their drug of choice,” said Sisk.
Sisk said that when a recovering addict goes through a level of care assessment, DAP gathers all sorts of information—drug of choice, the age usage began, duration of use and more.
The protocol is remains consistent for all substances, with special focus given to certain “priority populations,” including injection addicts, women with children and pregnant women.
“Age, drug of choice—we need to get as much background as possible,” she said.
However, Sisk said that their data may be incomplete—because they have no way of tracking drug of choice for recovering addicts with private insurance.
“Drug and alcohol treatment facilities—that’s typically how we find out about usage,” she said. “And we get our referrals from probation, from juvenile probation, from the hospital…”
Sisk said that in a community ravaged by drug use and taking active steps toward remedy, identifying new drugs can be especially taxing. Sisk referenced videos on social media about “these drugs, and all the outrageous things people do under them.”
“It’s hard because you see somebody in front of you, and you don’t know if it’s a mental health issue, if it’s a drug issue…” she said.