08/29/2025
Warning
fentanyl analogs — chemical cousins of fentanyl that underground labs produce to skirt laws or to increase potency. Many of these are much stronger than fentanyl itself and have been linked to sudden overdoses.
Some of the more widely seen analogs include:
• Carfentanil – about 100× more potent than fentanyl (used as a large-animal tranquilizer, never safe for humans).
• Acetylfentanyl – weaker than fentanyl but still deadly; has caused fatal outbreaks.
• Butyrfentanyl – another variant, slightly less potent than fentanyl but very dangerous.
• Furanylfentanyl – linked to clusters of overdoses.
• Remifentanil – an extremely short-acting hospital drug that sometimes appears in illicit markets.
• Sufentanil & Alfentanil – hospital medicines but misused analogs occasionally appear illicitly.
• Other designer analogs – chemists keep making “new” versions by altering molecules (e.g. valerylfentanyl, ocfentanil, isobutyrylfentanyl) to evade detection.
👉 The danger is that people often don’t know which analog is present (or how strong it is). A few grains can be lethal, and these analogs are often mixed into fake pills, heroin, or even cocaine without the buyer knowing.
That’s why public health officials call fentanyl analogs “pure evil” — not in a moralistic sense, but because the unpredictability and potency make them especially deadly.
