'Stuff that will kill you': NC lawmakers push to ban 'gas station heroin'
North Carolina lawmakers are considering making a drug known as “gas station heroin” a controlled substance.
The drug tianeptine – which is also known as Neptune’s Fix, Tianaa or Zaza – is highly addictive and widely available at convenience stores and vape shops.
The North Carolina House Substance Abuse Committee voted unanimously to recommend state leaders vote to take tianeptine off the shelves permanently. The committee recommended adding the drug to the list of controlled substances along with other highly addictive drugs like cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.
The committee also want schools to do more to educate kids about tianeptine and other drugs, especially fentanyl.
State Rep. Donna White, R-Johnston County, said some people who’ve gotten addicted to tianeptine say they had no idea what was in it.
“You can go into any convenience store, especially those that are a little more rural, and you can pick up stuff that will kill you, literally kill you,” White said. “And it's not FDA-approved, and it's on the shelf and you can buy it.”
The committee is also recommending state-funded positions for restroom monitors in every school.
White said there's a lot of vaping and other drug use that goes on in restrooms between classes in schools, but there aren't enough staff currently to monitor them.
Tianeptine is marketed as a dietary supplement, not a drug, but it mimics the effects of heroin in the brain. There’s no age restriction on it, so even kids can buy it.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration [FDA] issued warnings about it earlier this year, and the companies that make it have issued voluntary recalls. However, it isn’t illegal, so store owners aren’t required to take it off their shelves.
State Rep. Steve Ross, R-Alamance, is in favor of getting tianeptine off the shelves in North Carolina.
“It’s pretty much everywhere,” he said.
Ross said people have gotten addicted to the drug without even realizing what was happening, and some have ended up in the emergency room.
Makers of the products didn’t respond to WRAL’s requests for comment or were unable to be reached.
