Friday, January 16, 2026 - Every morning, volunteers Elodie Berland and Jon Glackin walk around Keir Starmer’s constituency offering hot drinks and meals to rough sleepers. As part of the charity Streets Kitchen, they are used to difficult sights and stories on the streets. But for months, both volunteers and those they help have been living on edge amid fears that at least 13 people have been k!lled by a new fatal drug, cychlorphine.
The synthetic opioid is said to be 200 times stronger than
heroin and has been mixed into other hard drugs and counterfeit pharmaceuticals
circulating in the capital.
“More often than not, we are now wondering which friend we
have lost after hearing another tale that someone has overdosed,” Elodie said.
Metropolitan Police confirmed that three people d!ed within
one month in Camden after taking the drug: a man in his 50s on October 30, a
woman in her 40s on November 14, and a man in his 40s on November 23.
Officers have arrested and charged 11 people in connection
with distributing synthetic opioids such as cychlorphine, following major
enforcement operations in the Camden area. In reality, the number of de@ths
linked to the substance is believed to be significantly higher.
Around 13 people are estimated to have d!ed in London over
the last year, according to the charity Change Grow Live (CGL). An inquest
report also revealed that a man named Oscar Brown died in March after consuming
the drug, with an additional 10 people taken to hospital that same day from the
same supply.
Buyers are rarely seeking cychlorphine directly. As a white
powder, dealers have been using it to bulk up heroin or produce counterfeit
pharmaceutical drugs such as oxycodone. Charity workers warn that it has also
appeared in cocaine supplies, and cross-contamination in production labs, believed
to be in India or China, is likely.
The chemical structure of cychlorphine is only a slight
modification of nitazines and other synthetic opioids. After the Taliban banned
opioid production in Afghanistan, there was a significant reduction in global
heroin output, prompting criminal networks to find alternative substances to
meet demand. It is suspected that cychlorphine is manufactured in China and
India, with compounds altered to avoid falling under existing bans.
The drug is also easy to smuggle due to lack of strong
odour, meaning sniffer dogs struggle to detect it at checkpoints. CGL warned
that coroners and hospitals are not routinely testing for synthetic opioids,
meaning deaths are likely under-recorded. “The information that is out there on
cychlorphine is limited, we really do not know much about it yet,” the charity
said.
The Metropolitan Police charged 11 individuals with
conspiring to supply Class A drugs linked to cychlorphine. During raids,
officers seized significant quantities of Class A and B substances, 36 bottles
of codeine, over £20,000 in cash, £11,000 in gold bullion and multiple
weapons, including a sawn-off shotgun.
Streets Kitchen volunteers said information about the drug
“should have been shared months ago”, and that Camden is often treated as a
“testing ground” for new substances due to high levels of addiction and
homelessness. They warned that vulnerable and homeless individuals are at
particular risk from contaminated supplies.
CGL continues to encourage drug users to carry naloxone, a
life-saving medication capable of reversing opioid overdoses. The charity said
that accidental exposure is increasingly likely as cychlorphine is being mixed
into other drugs and purchased through everyday platforms rather than the dark
web. “The reality of the situation is it is just like any other drug,” CGL
stated.
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