Four Darwin men have been taken to hospital with symptoms of wild aggression and hysteria after taking a new designer drug called Snapchat.
The small pink and blue pills contain the imprint of the ghost logo for popular social media application Snapchat.
One man was treated in intensive care and another three treated by hospital staff after taking the drug in Darwin this weekend.
It is the second weekend residents in the city have been hospitalised after taking the drug.
The hospitalisations have prompted warnings from police and health professionals, who say the drugs contain ingredients known as bath salts.
“You certainly don’t want to be putting this in your body. It’s nothing new – this Snapchat is a new logo, [but] it’s the same poison,” said Detective Superintendant Peter Shiller.
He linked the drug back to an attack on a US homeless man in 2012 involving bath salts.
“If you see [the] problems that they’ve had in Florida – that homeless guy eating someone’s face – that’s your bath salt issue,” he said.
“This particular tablet may have been manufactured locally into that particular logo, but it’s still the base ingredient.”
Northern Territory chief medical officer Steven Skov says the drug is a class of amphetamine and has warned young people to stay away from the drug.
“They are very aggressive while on this drug and it’s also a danger to themselves,” he said.
“Because we know that with these types of drugs there is a potential to have a heart attack, to have something called malignant hypothermia where you essentially cook your brain.
“So they are a real danger to themselves and other people. So the message is, please do not take this drug.”