Emerging Opioid Cychlorphine Can Be Hidden in Other Drugs, MSU Warns
Michigan State University is urging its campus community to stay safe and be vigilant of signs of drug overdose as deaths linked to cychlorphine, an emerging synthetic opioid, crop up across the country.
More than 50 deaths in the U.S. have been linked to cychlorphine between 2025 and 2026, according to an alert from the Office of National Drug Control Policy in April. However, officials in states largely across the south and midwest are alerting that the drug has been linked to many more recent fatal overdoses.
Cychlorphine can be 10 times more potent than fentanyl, which is about 10 times more potent than morphine, MSU Medical Director of Campus Health Services Tim Spedoske said in a video social media post from the university on Sunday. It doesn’t take very much of the drug to induce significant harm on the user and it’s being mixed in with other drugs, he added.
College campuses are on alert with recent drug overdose events, including 5 deaths related to cychlorphine over the course of a 24-hour period this month in Columbus, Ohio, home of The Ohio State University, according to WBNS 10TV.
“Almost every single time, what is happening is people are taking this substance without knowing it because this substance is being laced or maybe substituted in different pills or powders,” Spedoske said. “Please don’t take any medication, any pill, any powder that you have not been prescribed. It’s incredibly dangerous.”
As of Sept. 30, Michigan has not had any confirmed cychlorphine detections in overdose surveillance, toxicology reporting or fatal overdose monitoring, Lynn Sutfin, spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, told East Lansing Info.
Michigan State University Spokeswoman Amber McCann said she is not aware of any data that indicates cychlorphine’s presence on campus. She added that though MSU’s Department of Police and Public Service responds to medical emergency calls on MSU’s campus, they do not screen for substances.
The Ingham County Health Department also has not seen cychlorphine cited in overdose death reports from the Medical Examiner’s Office, Kennedy Scott, health communications specialist for the county told ELi.
The Ingham County Health Department shared a statement with ELi Wednesday encouraging those who use unregulated substances to take steps to prevent potential overdoses. The department notes that though there are not currently test strips for cychlorphine, there are test strips for fentanyl and they are available at the Ingham County Human Services Building.
“While we have not heard reports of this substance in our community yet, it does not mean it is not here. When someone uses unregulated substances, they may not be getting what they think they are. Even if you have used a drug before, an overdose can happen unexpectedly,” the Ingham County Health Department said in an emailed statement to ELi.
If residents are going to use unregulated substances, they are encouraged to do so in the presence of others and have naloxone, commonly known as Narcan, on hand, as it is a rapid acting medication used to reverse opioid overdoses
“Even if you do not use substances yourself, carrying naloxone could potentially save a life,” the Ingham County Health Department said in an emailed statement to ELi.
Dom Erdheim, Program Director for Lansing Syringe Access said their organization has heard word of a new drug being related to multiple nonfatal overdoses on MSU’s campus.
“We have heard from participants that there is some stuff going around. No one had a name for it that we were aware of, it doesn’t seem like there has been any identification on a county or state level outside of what’s happening at the university. So it’s very possible that it is already in local supplies and we just haven’t had anyone identify it yet,” Erdheim said.
While it’s a good thing to promote awareness for possible dangers attached to emerging drugs, Erdheim said, creating unwarranted panic is not helpful when addressing how different drugs get mixed in with existing drugs.
Lansing Syringe Access is a nonprofit in Lansing that offers harm reduction services for drug users such as clean syringes, wound care kits and overdose prevention supplies, including Narcan.
In the past, especially on college campuses, there will be isolated incidents of a few students purchasing from one supplier with a contaminated drug supply, Erdheim said. And though that is cause for concern, it’s different than an entire county or state’s drug supply being contaminated.
Currently, Lansing Syringe Access is in the process of working on a contract with county law enforcement to allow them to do rapid drug checking services at their Lansing location, Erdheim said. If they get the green light, the organization will be able to test samples of drugs brought in from the public to check for contamination and content.
“I really wish we were in a position where we could offer drug checking services to students because I think now would be a really beneficial time for that, but when speaking to people who use drugs, we are encouraging them to use with caution,” Erdheim said.
Because opioids like fentanyl and cychlorphine are so potent in small doses and are often mixed into other drugs without the user’s knowledge, the dangers of an accidental overdose for drug users are severe, Spedoske said in his video message for MSU.
Opioids can decrease a person’s ability to breathe, so if MSU community members see somebody who’s struggling to breathe or is unresponsive, it could be a sign of an overdose, Spedoske said. MSU community members who think somebody may be overdosing should call 911 and administer Narcan, Spedoske added, noting the university offers free Narcan in health vending machines located in Akers Hall, the MSU Union and the Multicultural Center.
If it turns out someone was not going through an overdose, administering Narcan may not help them with whatever health emergency they are experiencing, but it won’t hurt them, Spedoske said.
Drug-related deaths in mid-Michigan for the first quarter of the year increased from last year, according to data from the University of Michigan Health-Sparrow Medical Examiner’s Office, which serves as the medical examiner for Clinton, Eaton, Ingham, Ionia, Isabella, Livingston and Shiawassee counties.
From January to March of 2026, the Medical Examiner’s Office found 48 drug-related deaths, up from 35 during that time in 2025.
“One of the continuing concerns in reviewing these cases is not simply the number of deaths, but the changing substances and combinations of substances we are encountering,” the University of Michigan Health-Sparrow Medical Examiner’s Office told ELi in an emailed statement.
An emerging concern in mid-Michigan counties are kratom-related compounds, such as mitragynine pseudoindoxyl and 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH), as well as modified or concentrated products, the medical examiner’s office said.
Though cychlorphine has not been identified as a cause or contributing factor to a death in the seven mid-Michigan counties the University of Michigan Health-Sparrow Medical Examiner’s Office serves, the office does note that the appearance of multiple kratom-related compounds in Michigan illustrates how quickly the drug landscape can evolve.
“One of the larger public-health messages from our data is that we are increasingly dealing with a complex polysubstance environment. People may be exposed to combinations of traditional opioids, stimulants, prescription medications and newer compounds, and they may not necessarily know everything contained in the product they are using,” the University of Michigan Health-Sparrow Medical Examiner’s Office said.