- The emergence of potent synthetic opioids like ISO and cychlorphine has already triggered public health alarms across San Francisco.
- These substances hide within counterfeit pills that remain impossible to detect using current conventional test strips.
- The Department of Public Health warns that the potency of these compounds is extremely lethal, posing a serious threat to the community.
The San Francisco Department of Public Health issued an urgent alert after confirming the first overdose deaths linked to two new substances circulating in the black market. Among these substances, N-desethyl-isotonitazine, commonly known on the streets as ISO or “tony”, stands out as a powerful opioid that contains no fentanyl, meaning it escapes detection by the test strips that residents currently use to mitigate risks. This new threat also includes cychlorphine, a substance identified as ten times more powerful than traditional opioids, which turns any consumption into a high-stakes gamble for the lives of residents frequenting these areas.
The hidden danger in counterfeit pills
The most alarming aspect of this situation involves drugs like iso appearing as counterfeit pills that perfectly mimic legitimate medications, yet clandestine environments manufacture them without any pharmaceutical oversight. Since these pills do not originate from licensed laboratories, opioid concentrations vary drastically between doses, making it impossible for consumers to know if the pill in their hand contains a fatal amount of ISO or other lethal chemical compounds. Given this lack of standardization, health authorities in San Francisco warned that the only truly safe approach for the entire community involves avoiding any medication not dispensed directly by a certified pharmacy under a medical prescription…