ERIE, Pa. \u2014 Erie County law enforcement and public health agencies are monitoring an emerging synthetic opioid known as cychlorphine, though no confirmed cases have been identified in Erie County.<\/p>\n
Cychlorphine, also known as N-propionitrile chlorphine, is a non-fentanyl synthetic opioid that early laboratory testing suggests may be 4.5 to 10 times stronger than fentanyl.<\/p>\n
Federal investigators have documented the drug in multiple states, including Pennsylvania. At least 55 deaths nationwide were reported in 2025 and 2026, with concentrations in Tennessee, Ohio and Texas.<\/p>\n
Officials warn that standard fentanyl and nitazene test strips generally do not detect cychlorphine.<\/p>\n
The drug has also been found in counterfeit pills, including tablets sold as Xanax, potentially exposing people to opioids without their knowledge.<\/p>\n
Naloxone, or Narcan, remains effective in overdoses involving cychlorphine, though some cases have required multiple doses.<\/p>\n
Erie County agencies, including the District Attorney\u2019s Office, Coroner\u2019s Office, Department of Health, hospitals, EMS and law enforcement, are working together to track any local detections and expand public education.<\/p>\n
The DEA placed cychlorphine into Schedule I on Aug. 27.<\/p>\n
Anyone experiencing or witnessing a suspected overdose should call 911 immediately.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ERIE, Pa. \u2014 Erie County law enforcement and public health agencies are monitoring an emerging synthetic opioid known…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[129293,136,138,137,12313,42747,40550,129294],"class_list":["post-317291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-cychlorphine","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-fentanyl","tag-naloxone","tag-overdose","tag-synthetic-opioid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}