Coffee heat rising

Crazy Guy Update

Check out this story about the wacked-out 19-year-old who murdered a random couple who were puttering in their garage when he came upon them: stabbed them both to death and then proceeded to chew the flesh off the man’s face. They think the kid, who went into a decline and is now in intensive care, may have been high on a synthetic drug called flakka, which is related to the dangerous “bath salts” that were popular awhile back. It causes “causes users’ body temperatures to soar to 104 or 105 degrees, causing them to rip off their clothes,” says the Washington Post. “It also sends a surge of adrenaline through their bodies, giving them seemingly superhuman strength and a high pain tolerance.”

That would explain the crazy guy at the Costco‘s behavior. As a matter of fact, the guy had taken most of his clothes off. He had on a pair of pants, but that was it. I believe he was barefooted when he climbed into the tree. And since he’d just crossed two lanes of asphalt percolating, in 110-degree heat, at temperatures that will inflict second- and even third-degree burns, you’ve gotta figure he certainly was pain-tolerant. As for “superhuman strength”? He climbed up in a mature palo verde and was ripping off a whole limb (not just a branch) with his bare hands. The NIH says users can become quite violent (“hyperstimulation, paranoia, and hallucinations that can lead to violent aggression and self-injury”).

You know, this kid in Florida was neither disadvantaged nor, apparently, already mentally damaged. He appears to have come from an affluent, upper-middle-class family, was a good student, an athlete, and evidently on track for success at Florida State. Most recent report I can find in Google has him clinging to life.

Just what we need: yet another crazy-making drug to drive America’s dumb kids, criminals, and already sick homicidally berserk. What a terrible loss, to the boy’s family as well as the victims’ family and friends.

And who knows about our poor, demented crazy down at the Costco? The berserk killer probably was just as damaged as the black guy in the tree. The college kid’s family no doubt will sue the bejayzus out of Florida State and Alpha Delta Phi if it comes out he got into some toxic drug on the campus or in the frat house. Who is going to sue for whatever happened to our guy in the slums?