{"id":198633,"date":"2025-10-22T20:49:03","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T01:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=198633"},"modified":"2025-10-22T20:49:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T01:49:06","slug":"carfentanil-cases-on-the-rise-in-ohio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/10\/22\/carfentanil-cases-on-the-rise-in-ohio\/","title":{"rendered":"Carfentanil cases on the rise in Ohio"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

VW independent staff\/submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is urging caution as new data from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation shows a continued rise in drug seizures involving carfentanil and other deadly synthetic opioids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe amateur chemists who create these deadly drug combinations don\u2019t care if you live or die,\u201d Yost said. \u201cHere\u2019s the deal: If you take drugs that weren\u2019t prescribed by your doctor, you risk lethal exposure to synthetic opioids.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through the first three quarters of 2025, BCI forensic scientists have identified carfentanil in 199 items submitted to the bureau\u2019s laboratory for testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carfentanil\u2019s presence peaked in Ohio in 2017, when BCI identified it in 1,119 drug samples. Despite a sharp decrease in its prevalence in recent years \u2013 carfentanil was confirmed in nine samples in 2023 and 40 in 2024 \u2013\u00a0the uptick noted by BCI earlier this year\u00a0is spreading.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
This map shows the number of reported carfentanil cases to date. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The 199 items found to contain carfentanil so far this year encompass samples from 46 Ohio counties. The drug\u2019s highest prevalence has been in central and northwestern Ohio, including 11 cases in Allen County, and one case each in Van Wert and Auglaize counties. There has also been a more recent increase noted in southern Ohio counties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carfentanil is a lethal synthetic opioid about 100 times more potent than fentanyl and about 10,000 times more potent than morphine. An analog of fentanyl, carfentanil is not approved for use in humans but is used by veterinarians to anesthetize elephants and other large animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carfentanil can be found alone or in complex mixtures with fentanyl, xylazine, para-fluorofentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and\/or ketamine. The opioid comes in several forms (powder, compressed solid materials, tablets and liquid) and colors (white, off-white, brown, tan, green, light blue and purple).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

A new threat: N-propionitrile chlorphine<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BCI lab recently identified a new opioid compound in Ohio, N-propionitrile chlorphine, also known as cychlorphine. The compound is a rare synthetic opioid with effects similar to fentanyl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drug was seized at the scene of a non-fatal overdose in the Butler County city of Fairfield. Several doses of Narcan were needed to revive the individual, according to first responders. The substance \u2013 a tan powder \u2013 also contained fentanyl and xylazine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

N-propionitrile chlorphine is an emerging drug that has not been identified frequently in seized drug samples in Ohio or the United States. Other occurrences, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, include a July 2025 overdose in Tennessee and an April 2024 drug seizure in Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To date, the BCI lab has evaluated roughly 65 distinct fentanyl compounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VW independent staff\/submitted information Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is urging caution as new data from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation shows a continued rise in drug seizures involving carfentanil and other deadly synthetic opioids. \u201cThe amateur chemists who create these deadly drug combinations don\u2019t care if you live or die,\u201d Yost said. \u201cHere\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-198633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 08:55:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198633"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":198636,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198633\/revisions\/198636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}