Cychlorphine: The Newer More Powerful Version Of Fentanyl Has Arrived
San Francisco Police Chief Derrick Lew announced Monday that the city has identified its first known victim of cychlorphine, a 16-year-old Nob Hill resident who was found dead at his home on Bush Street on April 7 after his mother found him unresponsive.
She administered Narcan twice. It was not enough. Cychlorphine was found in counterfeit pills he had taken mimicking Xanax, Adderall and oxycodone.
Four people have been arrested. A September 8 arrest of two suspects was followed September 9 by raids on two additional homes, where police seized more than 20,000 counterfeit pills along with fentanyl, MDMA, black-tar heroin, firearms and cash. The FDA is now analyzing the seized pills for cychlorphine.
The drug is alarming public health officials for three reasons. It is possibly ten times more potent than fentanyl, itself 50 times stronger than heroin. Standard fentanyl test strips cannot detect it.
Despite the DEA issuing a temporary Schedule I designation for cychlorphine in August, it is still not a scheduled controlled substance in California, making it difficult to charge anyone specifically for possessing or distributing it. San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins called on state lawmakers to act immediately.
The Knox County Regional Forensic Center in Tennessee has linked cychlorphine to at least 41 deaths across 11 counties between July 2025 and February 2026. At least 24 states have reported overdoses or deaths involving the drug.
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