An innocent looking small bottle of Tianeptine is sometimes called "gas station heroin" and Alabama legislator wants to see it banned. The U.S. FDA has even placed a warning but people across Alabama can find it at convenience stores, gas stations, vape shops, and online retailers.

Alabama State Sen. Arthur Orr introduced the bill to ban the drug to the Senate after it passed in the House. Orr stated “It’s a dangerous drug, And again, what you have with chemically created drugs, when they’re put out there for consumers, there’s no law against them.”

Dr. Luke Engeriser, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer with AltaPointe Health System, frequently studies addiction and has looked at the effects of Tianeptine for some time. He said the lack of regulation in this area is troubling.

Tianeptine products are usually sold in a small bottle, an energy drink or a capsule form, under several different brand names. Dr. Engeriser said the drug can be deadly since it behaves similarly to an opioid, even triggering the same brain receptors, giving it addictive qualities.

“You’re basically taking, it is an opioid,” Engeriser said. “If you take an overdose of an opioid, the most dangerous thing is it’ll slow down your breathing. And you can, you know, basically die of respiratory depression. But it also has other effects like seizures, agitation, confusion.”

Nearly a dozen states have regulations on the drug due to some of those effects. Alabama was the second state to ban Tianeptine entirely in 2021. According to the Associated Press, The State of Alabama saw tianeptine-related emergency calls to poison control centers increase by more than 1,400% between 2018 and 2021.

The FDA’s warning does not regulate the drug in any way. It makes officials aware of the prominence of ‘gas station heroin’ and the dangers that come along with it.