Street chemistry

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Thursday the 28th of May. This is WORLD Radio and we’re so glad you’ve joined us today! 

Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

First up on The World and Everything in It: a new opioid hits U.S. streets.

EMS departments across the country are warning first responders to watch out for a new synthetic opioid that’s up to ten times more potent than fentanyl—and hard to detect.

REICHARD: Cyclorphine is part of a new class of drugs called orphines that are causing overdose deaths across the country.

WORLD’s Mary Muncy reports.

MARY MUNCY: David Peress works with the Chicago Recovery Alliance, testing street drugs so people don’t overdose.

DAVID PERESS: We've seen orphine opioids show up in two different subtypes of supplies.

Some people order orphines online and know what they're getting.

PERESS: And the other context we see orphine opioids is in trace amounts in street dope.

That’s fentanyl.

Authorities believe some illicit drug-makers are lacing their products with orphines to create a more intense high, leaving users unaware of what they're taking and first responders scrambling to treat them correctly.

New street drugs are an increasingly common problem, starting with fentanyl in 2012.

ABC NEWS: A synthetic painkiller 100 times more powerful than morphine… Fentanyl is taking the opioid epidemic to a new level of urgency.

Then, a few years ago, the animal tranquilizer Xylazine made headlines.

FOX NEWS: A new drug is being blamed for turning parts of Philadelphia into what some are calling zombie land.

Then last year, it was nitazenes…

KHOU 11: New warning this afternoon from the DEA: a synthetic opioid so potent that this makes fentanyl look weak.

Nitazenes can be up to 40 times more powerful than fentanyl.

These new drugs are synthetic compounds—so instead of drug makers taking the time to grow something like poppies for opium or coca for cocaine, they acquire a set of somewhat common ingredients and synthesize them into a drug. That means new compounds are constant.

In the lab, Peress uses both rapid testing strips and a spectrometer to figure out what’s in drugs.

PERESS: Dope can contain anywhere from like, several to a dozen, usually more, active compounds.

Spectrometers list every compound in a sample, but are less common outside the lab.

Medical professionals and law enforcement often use rapid test strips. But those only react with the compound they’re made to find. That means you need a strip for every drug you’re looking for, and there isn’t one for orphine analogues yet.

PERESS: In 2023, we had a three panel test strip. In 2026, we have a seven panel test strip, because new drugs keep getting added to the supply.

Some rapid tests can have more than 12 strips.

Alex Krotolsky with the Center for Forensic Science Research and Education says suppliers change their product because they’re looking for the cheapest, easiest money-maker.

He says orphine suppliers seem to be trying to get around the greater attention on nitazines.

ALEX KROTOLSKY: With the recent scheduling of the nitazines in China in July of 2025, we're now seeing the proliferation of additional orphines.

And since there are no test strips for orphines, no one will know whether orphines played a role in an overdose unless samples are tested in a lab.

KROTOLSKY: Especially when these drugs first emerge. The challenge is that most laboratories are not testing for these drugs.

So no one knows the scope of the problem. 

Right now, the orphine analogue cyclorphine seems to be popular.

KROTOLSKY: In 2026 alone, we've had more than 110 deaths associated with cyclorphine, so certainly it's a significant number. But here in the United States, that's still a lot less than the number of deaths we see from fentanyl.

Fentanyl caused more than half of all overdose deaths last year.

Brookings Institution Fellow Vanda Feldbab-Brown says orphine use probably, and hopefully, won’t be as widespread as fentanyl.

VANDA FELDBAB-BROWN: This is coming from Asia, probably China, through the mail. This does not appear to be large, wholesale distribution by Mexican cartels.

She says right now, the likely culprits in orphine production are small labs in Asia hoping to get around authorities. Brown says it’s a nimble industry.

FELDBAB-BROWN: In the past 10 years, the amount of new substances arriving in the U.S., in Europe, is just order, or two orders of magnitude greater than what we saw in the 10 years prior to that.

Brown thinks that’s a trend that’s here to stay.

For now, orphines are an emerging problem, and states are taking steps to keep it from growing.

About 70,000 people died of an overdose last year. That’s a decrease from the year before, but experts say it’s important to stay vigilant. 

Florida Poison Control Center public information officer Mike McCormick:

MCCORMICK: These aren't just statistics. Every one of those numbers represents a mother, a father, a brother, a sister, a son, a daughter, a friend, a neighbor, a church member, a workmate, and there's countless other victims, which are the people that are left behind. So while we are seeing encouraging news that we are bringing overdoses down, now is not the time to stop and get complacent. Now is the time that we really need to step on the gas and push this forward and dramatically bring these numbers down.

McCormick advises calling Poison Control [1-800-222-1222] in a suspected overdose…plus administering the overdose reversing drug naloxone if you have it. Even if it’s not an overdose, naloxone is harmless for most people and first responders will know what to do next.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

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