Ohio is one of the states where a lab-made opioid estimated at up to 10 times the strength of fentanyl has already turned up in seized drugs. It is called cychlorphine. Public records do not yet show a confirmed overdose from it in Fostoria, Findlay, or Tiffin.

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy put the drug on a threat notice dated April 30. By then it had been found in every region of the country, most often in Ohio, Texas, and Tennessee. Lab reports counted 106 samples in 10 states in 2025, up from a single sample in 2024. At least 55 deaths nationwide in 2025 and 2026 have been tied to it. Tennessee accounts for at least 41 of those, from July 2025 through February 2026. Ohio is a detection hotspot. It is not, on the published numbers, the death hotspot.

Hamilton County Public Health told WLWT in late September that the limited local samples containing cychlorphine were mixed with fentanyl. Montgomery County said it had no cases yet and was watching. The Columbus DEA office put the potency at as much as 10 times fentanyl and repeated the line it has used for counterfeit pills: one pill can kill. Fewer than 100 Ohio detections had been logged when Miami Valley stations reported the warning on Sept. 25.

Cychlorphine is not a fentanyl analogue. It sits in a newer family chemists call orphines. Like other opioids, it can shut down breathing. It has been found alone and cut into fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine, and sedatives, and pressed to look like pharmacy pills. Standard hospital urine screens and many rapid test strips do not pick it up, which is why a death can be booked as a fentanyl overdose until a specialty lab looks again. Naloxone can reverse an orphine overdose because it is an opioid, but DEA agents in Cleveland said a synthetic this strong can take several doses.

A second class is already further along in Ohio’s death data. Nitazenes, experimental pain drugs abandoned in the 1950s as too dangerous for medicine, can run 10 to 40 times fentanyl. From 2019 to 2024, more than a third of positive nitazene lab reports in the National Forensic Laboratory Information System were linked to Ohio. CDC figures put Ohio first in the country for nitazene-related overdose deaths since 2021: four in 2020, 90 in 2021, and about 200 more from 2022 through 2024. In the Cuyahoga County cases reviewed by reporters, nitazenes showed up beside fentanyl almost every time, often with cocaine, meth, or benzodiazepines. U.S. Rep. Dave Taylor of Ohio’s 2nd District cited the rise, from 3 Ohio nitazene deaths in 2020 to 77 in 2023, when he filed the Nitazene Response Act in April.

Xylazine, the animal tranquilizer, is the third drug in the same Cleveland DEA briefing. It is not an opioid. Narcan does not reverse it.

None of that has been tied, in the Review Times, the Advertiser-Tribune, or county releases, to a Fostoria, Findlay, or Tiffin overdose. What those towns have on the books this year is cocaine and crack. On Feb. 9, METRICH and Fostoria police hit four houses and seized cash, suspected cocaine, and guns. On March 25, a Beier Drive warrant ended with Andre A. Moorer, 22, charged with crack possession, child endangerment, and weapons under disability. The local fentanyl case still cited by police is older: on June 14, 2025, Officer Brayden Moon collapsed after a traffic-stop exposure to suspected fentanyl and was revived with several doses of Narcan.

The practical warning from the agencies tracking cychlorphine is narrower than the headline. People buying pills or powder are not being told what is in them. Ohio is already on the detection map. The death count that has been published is still concentrated in Tennessee, and northwest Ohio coroners have not posted a cychlorphine case.

Sources used for the article:

Cychlorphine

• White House Office of National Drug Control Policy threat notice, April 30, reported by HealthDay via Gastroenterology Advisor, Oct. 2, 2026: https://www.gastroenterologyadvisor.com/news/new-opioid-up-to-10-times-stronger-than-fentanyl-spreading-across-us/
• MedPage Today, Sept. 8, 2026, including Knox County, Tennessee, forensic-center counts and a Bowling Green State University researcher: https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/opioids/122919
• WLWT, updated Sept. 28, 2026, Hamilton County Public Health and St. Elizabeth Physicians: https://www.wlwt.com/article/synthetic-opioid-fentanyl-ohio-kentucky-fentanyl/73934107
• WHIO, Sept. 25, 2026, Columbus DEA and Montgomery County: https://www.whio.com/news/local/one-pill-can-kill-officials-warn-drug-10-times-more-potent-than-fentanyl/GIRXO4SPBJAKDPLDBZDJ6YPZMI/
• Cleveland 19, Sept. 22, 2026, DEA briefing on cychlorphine, nitazenes, and xylazine: https://www.cleveland19.com/2026/09/22/dea-warns-synthetic-drugs-are-making-illegal-fentanyl-supply-deadlier/

Nitazenes

• Signal Cleveland, June 18, 2026, NFLIS and CDC figures and Cuyahoga County deaths: https://signalcleveland.org/new-synthetic-opioids-reach-cleveland-how-ohio-is-bearing-the-brunt-of-nitazenes/
• Rep. Dave Taylor, Nitazene Response Act release, April 7, 2026: http://taylor.house.gov/media/press-releases/taylor-bill-aims-improve-response-nitazene-overdoses

Fostoria and Seneca County cases cited for local contrast

• Advertiser-Tribune, March 26, 2026, Beier Drive crack warrant: https://advertiser-tribune.com/news/841087/fostoria-raid-leads-to-arrest-crack-found/
• Review Times, Feb. 12, 2026, four-home METRICH sweep: https://reviewtimes.com/news/763885/raid-yields-drugs-guns-cash-in-fostoria/
• Advertiser-Tribune, June 15, 2025, Fostoria officer revived after suspected fentanyl exposure: https://advertiser-tribune.com/news/597593/fostoria-officer-odd-revived/

No cychlorphine or nitazene case in Fostoria, Findlay, or Tiffin turned up in those papers. Local discussion is in these Facebook groups: