Ohio Attorney General issues warning after rise in deadly synthetic opioid seizures

(WKBN) — 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.

Carfentanil is a lethal synthetic opioid about 100 times more potent than fentanyl and about 10,000 times more potent than morphine. It is not approved for use in humans but is used by veterinarians to anesthetize elephants and other large animals.

“The amateur chemists who create these deadly drug combinations don’t care if you live or die,” Yost said. “Here’s the deal: If you take drugs that weren’t prescribed by your doctor, you risk lethal exposure to synthetic opioids.”

According to data collected by BCI, 199 items were found to contain carfentanil so far this year in Ohio, with four carfentanil-containing items in Mahoning County and two in Trumbull County.

Carfentanil’s presence peaked in Ohio in 2017, when BCI identified it in 1,119 drug samples. Despite a sharp decrease in recent years, carfentanil was confirmed in nine samples in 2023 and 40 in 2024 – the uptick noted by BCI earlier this year is spreading.

The BCI lab has also 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.

The drug was seized at the scene of a non-fatal overdose in the Butler County city of Fairfield. Several doses of naloxone, an opioid-reversal drug, were needed to revive the individual, according to first responders.

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.