A dangerous new class of synthetic opioids called orphines is spreading across the United States, with potency roughly 10 times greater than fentanyl. Since last fall, these drugs have appeared in 14 states, primarily in the South and Midwest, and public health officials are racing to understand the threat. Victims can die with startling speed, sometimes slumping over abruptly with no time for the classic overdose foam to appear.

These compounds were originally developed in the 1960s by Belgian pharmacologist Paul Janssen, who also created fentanyl. Researchers abandoned orphines within years because they caused acute respiratory depression and proved highly addictive. Now, illicit manufacturers have revived these deadly drugs. The most common variant, cychlorphine, can be lethal in quantities no larger than a few sand-size grains.

The drugs proliferated after China banned nitazenes in July 2025, a related class of synthetic opioids. With that supply chain disrupted, dealers turned to orphines, which are difficult to detect in standard toxicology tests and exist in a legal gray area. Researchers believe cychlorphine often enters the United States via international mail, either as a powder or mixed into counterfeit pills. European countries including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, France, and Germany have also detected the drug.

Reversing an orphine overdose requires significantly more naloxone than fentanyl overdoses—sometimes multiple doses instead of one or two. Some American overdose victims have tested negative for conventional drugs but positive for cychlorphine alone, suggesting it is increasingly used on its own rather than as an adulterant.