Flakka is the street name of a particular illicit drug that is circulating now and causing many problems. News organization are reporting that "flakka is Spanish for a thin desirable woman." I see the derivation from "flaca" -- but are these newscasters just making assumptions? Has anybody seen "flakka" used for anything other than is drug?

Also, my understanding of "flaca" is that it equates to English "skinny" and carries no connotations of beauty or desirability. Am I missing something here?

 

I think you got all right.
I don´t really get if you're talking about a real or a fictitious drug. I have never found 'flakka' written like that anywhere. As for the regular spelling 'flaca' it's what you say. It doesn´t mean anything else for me, but they could just be using that word, right?

 

You're rigth, also flaca is a colloquial way to adress to any young girl when you don't know her name, but nothing related, as you say, with beauty or desirability.

 

It's a real drug, and everybody is reporting it as "flakka" -- which does make some sense, because it is an amphetamine sort of thing and makes habitual users become past thin to the point of emaciated.

 

From Ft. Lauderdale FL news: "The common element to these and other bizarre incidents in Florida in the last few months is flakka, an increasingly popular synthetic designer drug. Also known as gravel and readily available for $5 or less a vial, it's a growing problem for police after bursting on the scene in 2013."

I am mostly hearing of this drug in Florida, which makes me wonder if "flakka" is a slang usage from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Dominican Republic -- somewhere close by.

 

Yes, flakka is the correct spelling, and it's a real drug, but I wouldn't put too much thought into the etymology. The origins of drug culture slang are notoriously difficult to trace. I agree that it probably came from Cubans, since the drug seems to be very prevalent in Florida right now, but it's probably impossible to know how and why it acquired its name.