These pills are not genuine Xanax. They're laced with cychlorphine, which is 10x as powerful as fentanyl. Credit: North Louisiana Crime Lab
The North Louisiana Crime Lab is warning you of a fairly new drug that’s appearing in street drugs with increasing frequency.
It’s called cychlorphine, and the NLCL says it’s extremely dangerous.
“We have laboratory studies that show that it looks to be up to 10 times more potent than fentanyl,” says Deputy Director for Toxicology Kenton Leigh.
The crime lab first detected cychlorphine from casework back in February; and since then, Leigh says they’ve detected seven different pill types with cychlorphine.
“You have drugs that were supposed to be Xanax or supposed to be oxycodone or supposed to be hydrocodone. We got those pills in the lab, and they all, instead, had cychlorphine in them.”
The pills that cychlorphine is being mixed into look nearly identical to those common prescription medications, and that’s putting those who take them at great risk.
“They’re taking these pills thinking they’re taking oxycodone. Instead, it’s something much more dangerous.”
Leigh says those who are making these counterfeit pills are getting more and more crafty.
“The biggest problem is that these illicit drug makers are getting very good at pressing
these fake pills, and many times it’s hard to tell the difference between a pharmaceutical oxycodone versus a counterfeit.”
Medical experts say it takes several doses of Narcan to reverse an overdose caused by cychlorphine.
Leigh says protecting yourself against cychlorphine is actually very easy.
“Get your drugs from a pharmacist,” Leigh says. “Just don’t buy any fake drugs off the street and you’ll be fine.”
Investigators have been busy tracking cychlorphine as it moves through the I-20 and I-49 corridors; in fact, a recent seizure in Richland Parish netted 545 pills containing cychlorphine.
Federal officials are working to classify cychlorphine as a Schedule I narcotic, labeling it as having no medical benefit.
That would put cychlorphine on par with narcotics like heroin and LSD.
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