Products such as Neptune’s Fix and other dietary supplements are a part of a new class of unregulated and potentially addictive substances that are readily available in an array of convenience stores.
Neptune’s Fix in particular contains a drug known as Tianeptine, popularly called “gas-station heroin”. Tianeptine is an atypical tricyclic antidepressant meant to treat severe depressive disorders, anxiety, and irritable bowel syndrome, and it can be found in various over the counter mood boosters. The drug was originally developed by French researchers in the 1960s as an anti-depressant, and is approved for that use in small doses in many European, Asian, and Latin American countries. Yet, in higher concentrations, this substance can have the same effects as an opioid, delivering a short-lived euphoria and sometimes causing dangerous bodily responses.
Tianeptine is one of many synthetic pharmaceuticals or plant-derived substances to be used in these supposedly beneficial products. Others like kratom and phenibut can also be addictive, and in some rare cases, fatal. These drugs often get imported from Indonesia or Russia, where they’re commodities and even prescribed for mood management- but the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has not approved them as medicinal products in the United States.
Since it made its way over to the US, Tianeptine has been banned or intensively restricted in at least nine states including Florida, Michigan, and Ohio. However, even in these places where it is banned the substance “is illegally sold with claims to improve brain function and treat anxiety, depression, pain, opioid use disorder and other conditions,” according to a countrywide announcement released by the F.D.A. in late November. The statement warned people to stay away from Tianeptine and the products that contain it as it has been tied to several overdoses and deaths. It also cautioned people that it can appear in different forms as a concentrated powder or an ingredient in products like Tiana, Zaza, and Pegasus.
Although this warning is really as far as the agency can go for now, since the F.D.A. loosely oversees dietary supplements but they do not evaluate supplements for safety or effectiveness, they can only forbid manufacturers to market them as medicinal treatments.
This factor has permitted many products with tianeptine to avert labeling requirements, such as Tiana, which is still advertised as a dietary supplement on the label, despite the F.D.A.’s explicit declaration that it does not qualify as one.
Like many other illegal drugs, tianeptine is sloppily mixed with unlabeled ingredients like potent synthetic cannabinoids, which is one reason why overdose symptoms can range widely.
However, some poison-center directors say they do not endorse a full ban of tianeptine, claiming that it could result in a dangerous business of underground trafficking. Instead,, they say the more important task is to educate emergency responders about the implied risks in the products so they can detect its effects better.
