The streets of San Francisco are awash with a brand new drug known as ISO that’s twenty instances stronger than lethal fentanyl – and officers are sounding the alarm.
The killer counterfeit opioid isotonitazene – recognized on the streets as ISO – claimed its first life within the drug-ravaged metropolis in April, San Francisco Well being Division officers stated in an alert issued that month.
San Francisco well being officers stated ISO was blended with one other artificial opioid known as cychlorphine within the overdose loss of life introduced April 23. ISO is affordable and lots of instances extra highly effective than fentanyl – making for a possible disaster.
“Even a single tablet can include a deadly dose,” the officers stated of their alert, which famous that the 2 artificial opioids wouldn’t present up in exams that point out the presence of fentanyl, making them much more harmful as a result of they’re undetectable.
A surprising video posted on-line confirmed throngs of stupefied customers reeling from the consequences of the lethal drug within the metropolis’s infamous Tenderloin district.
Within the video created by Manhattan Institute author Christopher Rufo, addicts are seen stooping over from the consequences of the highly effective drug and even mendacity corpselike on the sidewalk.
Rufo stated a seller instructed him ISO is rising in popularity on the streets.
“For the final ten years, it’s been an arms race for rising the energy of opioids, from heroin to fentanyl, and now, to ISO,” stated Rufo. “It’s devastating California cities.”
Based on the Middle for Forensic Science Analysis and Training, isotonitazene, which is often known as Nitazine, is roughly 20 instances stronger than fentanyl. It might be smoked, used intravenously or taken in a tablet.
Officers with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration final month issued a brand new warning about ISO and different artificial medication that the DEA says could also be combined with fentanyl.
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“These rising artificial medication could be considerably extra highly effective than fentanyl and drastically enhance the chance of struggling a deadly overdose,” the advisory warned, noting that customers who OD on the medication is probably not conscious of the overdose-reversal drug naloxone.
Based on the DEA, ISO initially emerged in U.S. illicit drug markets in 2019, when it was first recognized in seizures of unlawful medication by legislation enforcement. ISO will not be authorised for medical use and has no industrial use.
ISO is a “critical concern to the general public security,” the DEA stated in one other bulletin issued on the drug in December 2025.
The DEA has counted greater than 900 stories of isotonitazene because it was initially recognized by the company in 2019, together with 42 information in 2019, a peak of 358 stories in 2021, and 43 stories in 2024, the latest yr for which the info was obtainable.
Legislation enforcement officers in Los Angeles stated ISO has not but develop into a menace in California’s largest metropolis, however one police supply stated that “bathtub pharmacists” there are more and more mixing fentanyl with quite a lot of different medication, together with animal tranquilizers.
Los Angeles well being officers blame fentanyl for simply over half of all drug and alcohol deaths within the metropolis. Police have lately mounted a push to cleanse MacArthur Park in downtown LA of the crowds of customers who buy and devour medication there.
Jacqui Berlinn, who cofounded the San Francisco-based activist group Moms In opposition to Drug Habit and Deaths, stated San Francisco police should be doing extra to wash up the streets of that metropolis.
Berlinn stated the rise of ISO is especially threatening as a result of the drug is so highly effective and it might’t be detected by fentanyl check kits.
“It’s extremely scary as a result of it’s taking the addicts unaware,” stated Berlinn.
