INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, Fla. — A Florida EMS department will soon equip paramedics with ketamine to help control patients who are high on flakka.
WBPF.com reported paramedics at the Indian River County Fire and EMS department will be trained and equipped with the drug within two weeks.
Officials said an injection of ketamine in the thigh can sedate a patient high on flakka within about a minute.
Patients who are high on flakka can be extremely dangerous to paramedics because the drug makes them resistant to pain and can give them superhuman strength.
“It will knock them out, but it won’t hurt them in any way, shape or form,” attalion Chief Cory Richter said. “It will allow us to treat them and get them to the hospital, and it keeps our guys safe.”
Indian River County has had several high profile incidents involving flakka, including a female inmate who tried to choke an officer with her handcuffs and a man who slammed his car into the jail and then tried to climb a barbed wire fence.