San Francisco Teen Identified in City's First Cychlorphine Death

The victim of San Francisco's first fatal overdose involving cychlorphine, a synthetic opioid estimated to be ten times more potent than fentanyl, has been identified as a 16-year-old city resident, and police have arrested four people and seized roughly 20,000 pills in the investigation that followed.

Dante Paul Lacourte was found unresponsive in his bedroom at his Lower Nob Hill home on April 7 by his mother, who administered two doses of the overdose-reversal medication naloxone but could not revive him. His autopsy identified cychlorphine as the opioid responsible for his death, alongside N-desethyl isotonitazene, another synthetic opioid, and ethyl bromazolam, an unapproved benzodiazepine, KRON4 reported at the time.

Four arrests, 20,000 pills

San Francisco police last week arrested Nicholas Wallace, 46, in the Tenderloin, where he was allegedly carrying 34 oxycodone pills and cocaine, along with Sharonee Hyson, 44, who allegedly possessed cocaine base and a loaded firearm. A subsequent operation in Bayview-Hunters Point led to the arrests of Leander Pitts, 46, and Starr Lamare, 39, and the seizure of approximately 20,000 pills, including suspected counterfeit Xanax and oxycodone, as well as fentanyl and other drugs. Officers also recovered a semiautomatic assault rifle, a semiautomatic pistol and cash.

All four suspects were booked into county jail on felony charges related to narcotics sales and firearms, The New York Times reported.

A drug circulating through more than one source

According to the Times, Lacourte had struggled with ADHD, anxiety and depression and had used drugs to cope with school pressures, his family said. He frequented the Tenderloin and bought from street dealers there. His mother kept naloxone at home precisely because she feared an overdose — a precaution that has become standard advice for families but one that arrived too late in this case.

Pills recovered in earlier, unrelated arrests have also tested positive for cychlorphine, suggesting the compound was already moving through San Francisco's drug supply via multiple channels rather than a single batch. That diffusion complicates both enforcement and public health warnings, since there is no single source to shut down and no reliable way for people who use drugs to check their supply: standard fentanyl test strips do not detect cychlorphine.

The identification closes a loop that opened in April, when the city's Department of Public Health issued an urgent alert after confirming its first fatal overdose involving the compound, then newly detected in San Francisco. At the time, officials warned that even a single counterfeit pill could be lethal.

What is cychlorphine

Cychlorphine, also known as N-propionitrile chlorphine, belongs to a family of synthetic opioids that have emerged as enforcement pressure on fentanyl and its precursor chemicals has intensified. The Center for Forensic Science Research and Education had linked the substance to at least 25 overdose deaths nationwide as of January 2026, before it surfaced in San Francisco.

Its arrival follows a pattern toxicologists describe as a chemical arms race: each crackdown on a known compound pushes clandestine manufacturers toward novel substances that bypass existing regulations, evade detection tools and reach users before health officials can map the threat.

A monitoring gap at the worst moment

San Francisco had been running wastewater testing to track the local drug supply, including newly emerging substances, but federal funding for the program ran out in 2024. The city resumed testing in July and plans to begin publicly reporting results this fall — a capability that, had it been operating continuously, might have flagged cychlorphine's arrival before it killed.

"The worst possible way to find out a new drug is in the city is by an autopsy," said Keith Humphreys, a Stanford University addiction policy researcher, arguing that wastewater surveillance can identify emerging substances before deaths force the discovery.

For now, the city's picture of its own drug supply relies on the same tools that confirmed Lacourte's death: toxicology screens run after the fact, and pill testing conducted on whatever police happen to seize.