SALISBURY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A product referred to as "gas station heroin" is growing in popularity locally, according to a Lehigh Valley physician.
The over-the-counter drug is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
"Gas station heroin is a colloquial or street name for a group of substances, the main of which the major of which was something called tianeptine,” Dr. Chase Jones said.
Jones is an emergency medicine doctor and toxicology fellow with Lehigh Valley Health Network.
“It got the moniker of 'gas station heroin' because the opioid receptor effects tend to cause a little bit of euphoria, a definite sense of calming, something to cut through anxiety and stuff like that."Dr. Chase Jones, emergency medicine doctor and toxicology fellow with Lehigh Valley Health Network
Products containing tianeptine, such as the supplement Neptune’s Fix, are being sold at head shops, dispensaries and smoke shops around the country in the form of tablets and liquids, authorities said.
Jones said it was used in Europe for years as an antidepressant, but never regulated in the United States.
“It got the moniker of 'gas station heroin' because the opioid receptor effects tend to cause a little bit of euphoria, a definite sense of calming, something to cut through anxiety and stuff like that,” Jones said.
He said it's considered an opioid because it works on the same receptors as do drugs such as heroin, morphine and oxycodone.
Therapeutic, addiction potential
Tianeptine is highly addictive and runs the potential for overdose and withdrawal, Jones said.
“At low doses it could be potentially therapeutic, but once mu-receptors are agonized, like with heroin or fentanyl, the addiction potential goes up and up and up and up,” he said.
Jones said use of the drug causes sedation and, as the dosing gets higher, there's agitation, psychosis, rapid heart rate and central nervous system sedation that can cause a person to stop breathing.
"People have the perception that ‘if I can buy it, I can use it, and that it's a safe thing,’ which is absolutely not the case in a lot of these.”Dr. Chase Jones, emergency medicine & toxicology fellow, Lehigh Valley Health Network
The treatment for an overdose of the drug is naloxone, which reverses the effects of an opioid overdose.
Jones said the withdrawal from the drug also can be difficult, so a medication called suboxone is sometimes used to treat the addiction.
He reminded people that just because something is sold over the counter doesn't mean it is safe to use.
“Anything that's not regulated by the FDA is considered to be ‘a supplement,’" Jones said.
"As a result of that, people have the perception that, ‘If I can buy it, I can use it, and that it's a safe thing,’ which is absolutely not the case in a lot of these.”
The FDA has issued warnings this year about the potentially addictive dietary supplement "Neptune’s Fix" and others that contain tianeptine, saying people should refrain from buying and using it.
