Two University of Mississippi students were found dead on Sept. 21, but authorities have not determined a cause of death for each individual. The Lafayette County Metro Narcotics unit announced on the same day that no confirmed evidence linking the two deaths is currently available, but issued a warning regarding kratom, which was found at the scene of each death. Kratom is a popular plant often available as a synthetic derivative that has opioid-like effects.
At the same time, campus Greek organizations have issued warnings across campus regarding cychlorphine, a different synthetic opioid that can also cause dangerous overdoses, and does not show up on regular fentanyl testing strips used to examine narcotics for the presence of the powerful sedative. Currently, investigators have released no information linking cychlorphine to the deaths.
Police found one of the students on campus, and the other in the City of Oxford. Despite one call to the police suggesting one of the deaths may be related to some form of overdose, there is no evidence yet available suggesting that the kratom recovered from both scenes was the cause of the deaths.
Mississippi State Health Officer Dan Edney told the Mississippi Free Press in a Sept. 23 interview that, regardless of the causes, the risk of narcotic contamination is serious. “We’re trying to teach young people that any pill that you’re getting from any other source other than your pharmacist directly, you need to assume there’s something dangerous like fentanyl in it,” Edney said.
Critically, the state health officer added, any Mississippian can arm themselves with free Narcan, a simple nasal spray that can revive someone suffering a respiratory overdose, often meaning the difference between life and death.
“So if you have a loved one with active drug addiction, if you’re in active drug addiction, if you have friends who are in active addiction, or if you’re just out and about and want to be able to save somebody’s life, keep Narcan with you,” Edney said.
Free Narcan, as well as comprehensive instructions for its use, is available to all at https://odfree.org/.
No Evidence Deaths Are Connected
“Law enforcement is currently conducting two separate death investigations. At this time, we have no confirmed evidence indicating that the two deaths are connected,” the Lafayette County Metro Narcotics statement read. “However, packaged kratom sold from a retail store was found during both investigations. Out of an abundance of caution, we encourage everyone to avoid kratom and any other medication or substance that was not prescribed to you or obtained from a trusted, regulated source.”
The Daily Mississippian first reported the message from the campus organizations. “Because it is invisible to common harm-reduction testing tools,” the statement read, “emergency personnel and health agencies emphasize that if an overdose occurs, naloxone (Narcan) must still be administered immediately. However, due to cychlorphine’s extreme potency, multiple consecutive doses of naloxone are frequently required to restore breathing.”
Kratom, a tree found in Southeast Asia, has medicinal uses originating in Thai and Malaysian culture. The plant’s leaves can be chewed or made into a tea that provides energy and pain relief. The principal active alkaloid in this plant is called mitragynine, and as the plant left its traditional origins and made it to the global market a derivative—specifically, 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH—was enhanced and concentrated into the heavily potent versions now available across the country at gas stations and convenience stores, sometimes alongside the plant itself.
The FDA now treats such products as “novel potent opioids,” and their use can mirror many of the dangers of general opioid abuse, including strong addictions to the substance and the respiratory depressive symptoms that often cause overdose deaths. While there is evidence of some deaths following kratom use, a significant percentage of overdose deaths result after multiple substances are used, stacking the dangerous effects of various drugs until an overdose occurs.
Cychlorphine Significantly More Powerful Than Fentanyl
Cychlorphine, on the other hand, scientifically known as “N-propionitrile chlorphine” is a synthetic opioid that has been described as “ten times more powerful than fentanyl,” though such characterizations are not based on strict research into human dose reactions. Regardless, the drug is a profoundly powerful respiratory depressant, and increasingly is being found mixed into various narcotic compounds—methamphetamines, cocaine, benzodiazepine, or other drugs, much like fentanyl.
As the Greek organizations’ statement explains, one of the primary dangers of the increasing use of cychlorphine is that fentanyl testing strips, which can prevent an overdose by revealing the extreme, unexpected potency hiding in a narcotic, will not catch cychlorphine contamination.
Tennessee has had confirmed fatalities from cychlorphine. Edney told the Mississippi Free Press that MSDH had yet to track the drug in Mississippi, but that he was certain it was coming.
“We tend to get things last. That’s why I’ve been advocating at the Legislature: allow us to watch what’s coming from the West Coast and the Northeast and go ahead and schedule these things ahead of time, you know, and alert the public—which, you know, we try to do—and then support us in our surveillance to see when it does get here,” he said.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves offered his condolences to the family and the community in the wake of the deaths, asserting that the investigation into what caused the fatalities would progress quickly.
“The Mississippi Department of Public Safety and the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics are working closely with local law enforcement. They are assisting in the investigation and working to expedite toxicology reports. The State of Mississippi will continue to support the investigation and provide resources as requested by local law enforcement,” Reeves wrote on Facebook.
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