Fayette County has logged its first confirmed death linked to what many know as "gas station heroin," and the county coroner is sounding the alarm. Coroner Dr. Bob Baker said Tuesday that toxicology results tied the fatal overdose to tianeptine and urged lawmakers to move quickly to pull the unregulated products from shelves across the country. Local health and emergency agencies say they are stepping up outreach while investigators track where the product was purchased.
Dr. Baker told reporters the drug is being sold in convenience stores, vape shops, and online under brand names such as TD Plus, Neptune’s Fix, and Pegasus, and that nothing about this drug is regulated, according to CBS Pittsburgh. He described tianeptine as an opioid-like substance that is highly addictive and said his office only recently began testing for it in toxicology panels. Baker called for a nationwide ban in hopes of cutting off what he warned could turn into a wider epidemic.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has repeatedly warned consumers to steer clear of tianeptine products, stressing that the compound is not approved for use in the United States and has been linked to agitation, nausea, respiratory depression, coma, and death, according to the FDA. The agency also urges health professionals to consider overdose-reversal medicines such as naloxone and to report suspected adverse events to Poison Control.
Enforcement actions in other states suggest these products are already hiding in plain sight. Deputies in Union County, North Carolina, seized more than 5.5 pounds of tianeptine during a multi-week sweep of vape and THC shops earlier this year, according to WBTV. Public-health reporting notes that several states have moved to restrict or outlaw tianeptine supplements as poison-control calls and hospitalizations involving the drug have climbed, per Scientific American.
Baker told WPXI that he is working with state and federal partners to ramp up awareness and push for regulatory changes as quickly as possible. He also said that naloxone, sold under the brand name Narcan, should still work to reverse a tianeptine overdose and urged residents to keep Narcan on hand, according to WAJR.
Legal and regulatory questions
Turning tianeptine into a federally banned substance would require it to be scheduled under the Controlled Substances Act or covered by new legislation, a process handled by the Drug Enforcement Administration, according to DEA materials. Until that happens, states and local governments are largely left to write their own rules on sales while public-health officials watch closely for trends.
If you suspect someone has taken a tianeptine product, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 and seek immediate medical care. The FDA also encourages reporting any adverse events. For previous local coverage of retail sweeps and seizures, see our report on the gas station heroin crackdown.
