What to know about cychlorphine, a drug more potent than fentanyl

Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images/File

It’s an unfamiliar name that comes up in alerts from state medical examiners, local law enforcement and college campuses: cychlorphine.

The synthetic opioid has been linked to at least 122 deaths in the US since July 2025, and in April, the Office of National Drug Control Policy identified it as an “emerging drug threat.”

In August, the US Drug Enforcement Administration designated cychlorphine as temporary Schedule I drug, making it illegal in the United States.

But experts say they don’t expect it to become as widespread or dangerous a problem as many other illicit opioids. Here’s what to know about cychlorphine.

Fentanyl in the US: A visual guide

Cychlorphine is from a relatively new class of opioids called orphines that haven’t been used for medicinal purposes in the past, according to Dr. Nabarun Dasgupta, a street drug scientist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Cychlorphine cases are “sporadic” in the United States, he said, appearing significantly less often than fentanyl samples.

UNC researchers first detected the drug in the United States in August 2024, Dasgupta said. He noted that his colleagues in Europe had been seeing orphines in 2019 and had been watching for the group of drugs to emerge in the US since then.

Cychlorphine showing up in the United States is also a consequence of countries around the world making fentanyl analogs illegal, he said. This has pushed illicit markets to create drugs that are not fentanyl-related but have the same effects on users.

“It’s not surprising that it’s showed up,” Dasgupta said.

Cychlorphine has been seen in about 25 states across the country, according to Dr. Alex Krotulski, director of toxicology and chemistry at the Center for Forensic Science Research and Education.

In the Midwest, including Illinois and Tennessee, the drug has been seen in a powdered form, often mixed alongside fentanyl and heroin. In the South, including Texas, Louisiana and Alabama, cychlorphine has appeared in a pill form.

Laboratory-based models show that cychlorphine is more potent than fentanyl, which correlates to what researchers can see in humans, Krotulski said.

Due to the potency of the drug, it takes only a small amount to get a bigger effect.

Dr. Shravani Durbhakula, director of comprehensive pain service at Vanderbilt University, said that because cychlorphine is an opioid, it works on opioid receptors to cause respiratory depression, which is when people stop breathing or their breathing becomes slowed.

Cychlorphine can also cause sedation and euphoria, decreased consciousness and unresponsiveness.

Symptoms can be reversed with naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal drug also known as Narcan.

In cases Durbhakula has seen, cychlorphine is often combined with other substances, even in counterfeits of Xanax and OxyContin, making the effects more powerful and dangerous.

“It’s also been found by itself, so it doesn’t mean that it’s always mixed,” Durbhakula said. “But obviously, if you combine it with other things, it gets even more deadly.”

Fentanyl test strips do not detect cychlorphine because they’re different drugs, according to Dr. David Liss, an associate professor of emergency medicine at Washington University.

The drug is not on typical tests in hospitals, he said, so they may have to order specialized tests to detect it.

“I don’t believe that that there’s any kind of way to test for this on an individual scale,” Liss said.

Liss said he also thinks there’s an undercount of cases related to the new compounds, as hospitals cannot identify orphine drugs and it’s not clear whether they’re routinely tested in other labs.

How vending machines help states battle the opioid crisis: ‘You don’t know when you’re going to need these products’

Krotulski thinks cychlorphine will “fall off here pretty quickly” because it has been scheduled by the DEA and in China, which is the source for many novel opioids. He predicts that the number of cases will decline, appearing only as one-offs in the future.

Still, he said, cychlorphine is just one of at least 100 different opioids that he’s seen appear in the last decade, and he is expecting for new opioids to emerge down the road.

“For example, we’re not going to be talking about cyclorphine next October,” Krotulski said. “We’re going to be talking about the new and latest opioids, and there may be three or four until that time.”

约翰内斯·艾塞勒/法新社/盖蒂图片社/文件

这是一个陌生的名字，经常出现在州法医、地方执法部门和大学校园发布的警报中：氯苯胺。

自 2025 年 7 月以来，这种合成阿片类药物已在美国造成至少 122 人死亡，今年 4 月，国家药物管制政策办公室将其认定为“新兴毒品威胁”。

8 月，美国缉毒局将环氯啡列为临时一级管制药品，使其在美国成为非法药物。

但专家表示，他们预计环氯啡不会像其他许多非法阿片类药物那样广泛传播或造成严重危害。以下是关于环氯啡的一些信息。

美国芬太尼：图解指南

据北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校的街头毒品科学家纳巴伦·达斯古普塔博士称，环氯啡属于一类相对较新的阿片类药物，称为阿片类药物，过去从未用于医疗用途。他表示，在美国，环氯啡的案例“零星出现”，远少于芬太尼样本的出现频率。

达斯古普塔表示，北卡罗来纳大学的研究人员于2024年8月首次在美国发现了这种药物。他指出，他在欧洲的同事早在2019年就发现了奥芬类药物，并且从那时起就一直在关注这类药物在美国的出现。

他表示，环氯啡在美国的出现也是世界各国将芬太尼类似物列为非法药物的结果。这促使非法市场制造出与芬太尼无关但对使用者产生相同效果的毒品。

“它出现并不令人意外，”达斯古普塔说。

据法医科学研究与教育中心毒理学和化学主任亚历克斯·克罗图尔斯基博士称，全国约有 25 个州发现了环氯啡。

在包括伊利诺伊州和田纳西州在内的中西部地区，这种毒品以粉末状出现，通常与芬太尼和海洛因混合使用。在包括德克萨斯州、路易斯安那州和阿拉巴马州在内的南部地区，氯苯那敏则以药片形式出现。

克罗图尔斯基说，实验室模型显示，环氯啡比芬太尼的效力更强，这与研究人员在人体中观察到的情况相符。

由于该药物药效强劲，只需少量即可产生显著效果。

范德比尔特大学综合疼痛服务中心主任 Shravani Durbhakula 博士表示，由于环氯啡是一种阿片类药物，它作用于阿片受体，导致呼吸抑制，即呼吸停止或呼吸减慢。

环氯啡还会引起镇静和欣快感、意识下降和无反应。

纳洛酮（也称纳尔康）是一种阿片类药物过量解毒剂，可以逆转这些症状。

在杜尔巴库拉所见的案例中，氯苯胺经常与其他物质混合，甚至在假冒的阿普唑仑和奥施康定中也是如此，这使得其效果更加强烈和危险。

“它也曾单独被发现过，所以这并不意味着它总是与其他物质混合在一起，”杜尔巴库拉说。“但很显然，如果把它和其他物质混合在一起，它的毒性会更强。”

华盛顿大学急诊医学副教授大卫·利斯博士表示，芬太尼试纸检测不出环氯啡，因为它们是不同的药物。

他说，这种药物不在医院的常规检测范围内，所以他们可能需要进行专门的检测才能发现它。

“我不认为有任何方法可以对个人进行这种检测，”利斯说。

利斯表示，他也认为与这些新化合物相关的病例数量被低估了，因为医院无法识别奥芬类药物，而且目前还不清楚其他实验室是否会对这些药物进行常规检测。

自动售货机如何帮助各州应对阿片类药物危机：“你不知道什么时候会需要这些产品”

克罗图尔斯基认为，由于氯苯那敏已被美国缉毒局和中国（许多新型阿片类药物的来源地）列入管制药品名单，因此其在美国的流行“很快就会消失”。他预测，相关案例数量将会下降，未来只会零星出现。

不过，他表示，氯苯那敏只是他在过去十年中看到的至少 100 种不同的阿片类药物之一，而且他预计未来还会出现新的阿片类药物。

“例如，明年十月我们不会讨论环啡，”克罗图尔斯基说。“我们会讨论最新的新型阿片类药物，到那时可能会有三四种。”