Another Threat: Carfentanil

In 2025, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation found carfentanil in almost 200 seized drugs across 46 counties, and a similar surge is being seen in other states throughout the U.S. It’s a potentially deadly trend—carfentanil is about 100 times stronger than fentanyl and 10,000 times more potent than morphine.

Carfentanil was developed in 1974 by the same team at Janssen Pharmaceuticals that created fentanyl. Carfentanil is a fentanyl derivative, a chemically modified version of its parent drug. In other words, the chemistry of fentanyl was deliberately altered to make something even stronger.

The team at Janssen Pharmaceuticals intended carfentanil to have a legitimate medical application, but it’s so potent that it’s never been approved to treat humans. Instead, veterinarians use carfentanil to tranquilize large animals, like elephants.

Let that sink in. An elephant tranquilizer is being mixed into illicit drugs and fake prescription pills being sold in Ohio.

Currently, there’s no reliable way a casual user can check for carfentanil. Fentanyl test strips can miss it, so even if a test strip is negative, the illicit drug could still contain enough carfentanil to kill. It’s also so strong that one regular dose of naloxone (Narcan) often isn’t enough: It may take multiple or higher than standard doses to reverse a carfentanil overdose.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation has detected carfentanil in northwestern, central, and southern Ohio. Kentucky, Indiana, and many other states across the country are seeing the same. With carfentanil on the rise, the illicit drug supply may be more dangerous now than it’s ever been.