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Homemade synthetic drug mixes spread in US cities, deepening overdose crisis

BBC News reports that homemade synthetic mixes and tranquilizer-laced fentanyl are complicating overdose response in Columbus and Chicago.

Updated Oct 18, 2026 · 06:12 UTC1 reports

The short version

  • BBC News reports that fentanyl is often cut with synthetic tranquilizers such as medetomidine, which naloxone may not reverse.[BBC News]
  • Reporting describes homemade production in basements and bathtubs as part of the wave, and users often cannot tell what they are buying.[BBC News]
  • In Columbus, the recovery group Hope Dealers says 78% of recent fatal overdoses in Franklin County involve stimulants, while Cook County Jail in Chicago has seen overdoses from drug-soaked paper.[BBC News]
  • The sheriff quoted in the reporting argues that substance abuse treatment, not supply-side enforcement alone, is needed to shrink the drug market.[BBC News]

Key facts

  • Fentanyl is described as 50 to 100 times more powerful than heroin.[BBC News]
  • Fentanyl is often cut with synthetic tranquilizers such as medetomidine, which prolong the high and are not reversed by naloxone.[BBC News]
  • Naloxone, sold as Narcan, reverses opioid overdoses but likely would not have worked on a Columbus user identified as Mike.[BBC News]
  • US overdose deaths peaked at about 110,000 in 2022 and have since fallen to around 70,000 in the most recent year cited.[BBC News]
  • Hope Dealers says 78% of fatal overdoses in Franklin County over the last 12 months involve stimulants, according to its organizer Scott Sanders.[BBC News]
  • Overdose deaths among Black men in Ohio are increasing, according to Scott Sanders of Hope Dealers.[BBC News]
  • A sample from one Columbus user's drug kit, tested through a CDC sampling program, was positive for medetomidine.[BBC News]
  • Drugs smuggled into Cook County Jail in Chicago were soaked into paper, which was burned and inhaled, according to the sheriff.[BBC News]

What remains uncertain

  • The medetomidine finding rests on one positive sample from one participant's kit, so wider prevalence in the drug supply is not established.[BBC News]
  • The 78% figure, the rise in deaths among Black men, and the broader death trends are presented as the recovery group's own figures rather than independently confirmed in the reporting.[BBC News]

Sources

Outlet counts describe coverage, not independent confirmation. Reports may share a wire service or original source.