A newly emerging synthetic opioid is drawing public warnings in South Carolina after college social media accounts across the country began posting alerts. Known as cychlorphine, the substance has prompted concern because of its reported potency, addictive properties, health effects and resistance to standard opioid testing strips.

On Sept. 24, the Instagram account associated with Coastal Carolina University issued a warning directed at South Carolina students. The alert came as the South Carolina Attorney General's Office also moved to warn the public about the drug.

The Attorney General's Office stated that synthetic opioids are often manufactured overseas before being brought into the United States through drug cartels. The office presented cychlorphine as part of a dangerous flow of substances reaching American communities.

According to the office, synthetic opioids are designed to be more potent, more addictive and more difficult to detect. Those characteristics are central to the alarm surrounding cychlorphine, particularly because commonly used opioid test strips may not identify it.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson called the substance poison in a statement. He said foreign adversaries and drug cartels were working together to flood communities with deadly substances, adding that they were pursuing profit without concern for the people killed.

Cychlorphine is also spelled cyclophine, according to the warning. It is structurally distinct from other opioids such as fentanyl, a difference that accompanies concerns about whether people can identify its presence through standard testing methods.

The substance cannot be detected by standard opioid test strips, according to the information released about it. That detection problem comes alongside a stark assessment of its strength from Paul Richardson, chief medical examiner at Conway Medical Center.

"You're talking up to ten times more powerful than fentanyl," said Richardson. His comparison placed cychlorphine's reported potency at the center of the warning, along with the potential for severe physical effects after someone takes the substance.

The drug can cause changes in behavior and sleepiness. It can also cause a person to stop breathing or experience a heart attack, making the warning about cychlorphine a matter of immediate health and safety concern.

The report also said that reversing a cyproheptadine overdose could require several doses of naloxone, also known as Narcan. That possibility adds another concern for anyone responding when an overdose is suspected.

Since 2025, 55 deaths have been linked to the drug, according to Becker's Behavioral Health. The deaths have shown a regional concentration in the South and Midwest rather than being described as evenly distributed across the country.

Ohio, Tennessee and Texas were identified as states with a high prevalence. The reported concentration in those states accompanies the warnings appearing through college social media accounts and the public alert from South Carolina authorities.

Richardson said he has not yet seen any overdoses involving the substance in Conway. Even without a reported Conway overdose, however, he anticipates that the local situation could change soon.

"A few years ago, we never thought we'd have all these fentanyl derivatives we see now," he said. "So I'm sure if it's not already here, it's just a matter of time."

The warnings bring together several concerns about cychlorphine, including its reported strength, its distinct structure and the inability of standard opioid test strips to detect it. Authorities are also pointing to its health effects, overdose response challenges and links to 55 deaths since 2025.