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A dirt-cheap drug sweeping Australia's party scene known as 'monkey dust' can spark paranoia and psychosis quicker than crystal meth, experts have warned. 

At about $10 a hit, the synthetic substance 'turns users into the Incredible Hulk' and can leave them high for days on end.

Professor Nicole Lee, from Curtin University's National Drug Research Institute in Perth, said the emergence of the party drug in Australia is alarming.    

'It has some effects that are pretty similar to amphetamines and cocaine. If you take too much people can become a bit confused,' she told 3AW.

'In the longer term, there have been reports of paranoia and psychosis that are similar to ice - that seem to happen in a much shorter period of time.

'It's not a drug we know heaps about.'

A dirt-cheap drug sweeping Australia's party scene known as 'monkey dust' can spark paranoia and psychosis quicker than ice, experts have warned. A man is seen on a roof (pictured) after reportedly consuming the drug in the UK 

Also referred to as bath salts or MDPV, 'monkey dust' has emerged as the 'it' drug in recent times, and is increasingly used at Australian raves and music festivals. 

Professor Lee said recreational drug legislation and 'backyard chemists' increase the risks associated with the use of party narcotics.  

'A drug becomes much more dangerous when it's illegal, because it's manufactured in backyard labs and by backyard chemists, and so we don't know what's in them or how much someone is taking,' she said.

'If we were able to test pills at festivals, we would have a better sense of what's going around.' 

At about $10 a hit, the synthetic substance 'turns users into the Incredible Hulk', according to a UK paramedic, and can leave them high for days on end (stock image) 

Toxicologists have warned the drug - a powerful derivative of methamphetamine - causes wild hallucinations and impressions of invincibility.   

One Australian woman's tongue bled after she aggressively licked the dancefloor when she took the killer drug, which can be smoked, snorted or taken in pill form.

In August 2018, a 35-year-old man climbed over a safety barrier on the busy A50 motorway in Stoke-on-Trent, central England, after taking the drug and stumbled through traffic before he was hit and killed by a truck. 

The city has been awash with the drug, with users regularly seen in public, including one who danced around in his socks and shoes after stripping off his clothes.  

Users overseas have been filmed jumping in front of cars (pictured) and standing perilously on tall buildings because the drug makes them think they cannot be harmed

One local woman told The Daily Mail last year that she had 'seen thunderbolts raining from the sky' after taking 'monkey dust'.  

The drug can stop users feeling pain and cause agitation, hallucinations and severe paranoia, with some users believing they were being chased by demons while high.

Innocent bystanders have been attacked by users and in one instance, a man dragged his girlfriend through the streets by her hair while under the influence of the drug.  

Paramedics in the English city have increasingly come under attack, with some having to undergo testing after being spat in the face. 

'One man was lying on the floor, and appeared to be unconscious. But then he suddenly jumped up and started behaving as if he was superhuman,' paramedic Debbie Darle told The Daily Mail last year.   

'There were three of us and two were men but he threw us around like rag dolls. We pressed the panic button and the police came but it was like holding down a raging bull. [Dust users] are just not of this world.'

PC Rich Frost told Sky News 'it's almost like trying to restrain someone who thinks they are the Incredible Hulk'. 

A man was jailed in Stoke-on-Trent in September last year after he jumped on roofs while half-naked during a police siege and yelled-out 'I'm on monkey dust'. 

The man also threw tiles and swung from an aerial. 

Users overseas have been filmed jumping in front of cars and standing perilously on tall buildings because the drug makes them think they cannot be harmed. 

In 2012, a 20-year-old man was arrested and accused of attempting to kill a 77-year-old woman with a shovel while he was high on bath salts.

The man, who claimed he was an alien and talking to Jesus Christ, was arrested in California, with police needing tasers and 40mm rubber bullets to get him into custody.

In 2016, a 19-year-old college student in Florida was arrested, accused of stabbing two people to death and biting off part of a victim's face, making accusers think he was on drugs such as bath salts or flakka - a synthetic designer drug.    

The Australian Federal Police last year seized 4.5kg of monkey dst, or half a million doses, and warned consuming the drug was a gamble with your life that is not worth taking.

The drug has previously caused problems for Australian authorities - in 2012, the deaths of two people from South Australia was linked to the use of monkey dust.

Andrew Leibie, a leading forensic toxicologist, told the Herald Sun monkey dust is 'certainly a contender for the fatal drug overdoses we are seeing'.  

He said the drug is 'cheaper than ecstasy and it's a lot more dangerous' and only a small dose can be fatal.

The Australian Federal Police last year seized 4.5kg of the monkey dust drug (pictured), or half a million doses

Dr Chris Holmwood from Drug and Alcohol Services South Australia previously told the ABC the drug was so deadly because it was unfamiliar.

'Perhaps people think because they're paying less for it, it's not as potent a drug so that could be one reason but I guess it's lack of familiarity probably and not appreciating just how potent the drug is,' he said. 

'Monkey dust is difficult for authorities to detect as sniffer dogs and existing roadside tests are unable to pick it up.'

Four people have died in as many months from suspected drug overdoses at music festivals in New South Wales.     

The drug 'monkey dust' (pictured), a powerful derivative of methamphetamine, or ice, is being increasingly on consumed on dancefloors and at festivals across Australia