Wellness Unmasked: The Hidden Danger of “Gas Station Heroin”: What Parents Need to Know About Tianeptine

On this episode of Wellness Unmasked, Dr. Nicole Saphier dives into the growing dangers of Tianeptine, often called “gas station heroin,” and why it’s becoming a major public health concern—especially for teenagers and young adults.

After hearing firsthand about a young woman’s battle with addiction, Dr. Saphier breaks down what tianeptine is, how it works on opioid receptors, why it’s being sold legally in gas stations and smoke shops, and the alarming rise in poison center calls, overdoses, and rehab admissions tied to the drug.

She also explains the FDA’s warnings, the regulatory loopholes allowing products like Neptune's Fix and ZaZa Red to stay on shelves, and what parents need to watch for to protect their kids.

This is an urgent conversation about addiction, mental health, and why “legal” doesn’t always mean safe. A must-listen for parents, caregivers, and anyone concerned about America’s evolving drug crisis.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Wellness un Mass. I'm doctor Nicole Sapphire and
I have a really interesting topic to discuss. But first
I want to say, let's all just stop for a
second and take a breath. Obviously, the weekend was incredibly stressful.
Another assassination attempt on the president's life, and it sounds
like the manifesto he didn't just necessarily want to get
to the president, but maybe other members of the administration.

(00:27):
I had a lot of friends in that room at
the White House correspondence dinner that night, so I'm so
grateful that Secret Service and the police were able to
act swiftly and everyone made it out safely and unharmed.
Very scary time. We're living in lots of rhetoric going on,
and you know, we all just need to take a

(00:48):
step back, take a big, deep breath. Now, I probably
should talk about something that is a little bit more
of a feel good conversation, you know, just because of
the stressful weekend everyone's had. But when I was working
in the hospital today, I got a text message from
a friend asking me about Tyane Nepteine. Now you may

(01:10):
not know what that is, and in fact, when I
hear that name I don't necessarily it doesn't ring a
bell to me, but it's something important that I think
we should talk about because I want you to know
about it, and especially if you have kids who are
adolescents young adults, you're going to be glad that you
know about it. So, Tyan Epteine, you may have heard

(01:33):
it as referred to some people call it gas station heroin.
And now, while that nickname may sound sensationalized, and you know,
I'm usually the first person to push back on media
fear mongering, in this case, the concern is very real
because this is exactly the kind of story that keeps
me up at night as both a doctor but also

(01:53):
a mother. And I want to start with again, something
deeply personal. The reason I'm talking about this today is
because a close friend of mine called me today. A
friend's daughter, very close to the family, bright athletic, she
came in, she came from a great family, no major
red flags. She had been struggling with some anxiety and
some stress. And you know, as a mother of a

(02:16):
twenty six year old, let me tell you, every adolescent
and college age kid feels that stress and maybe some
little level anxiety. So she was introduced to what she
was told was a quote unquote natural mood enhancer that
she could buy legally, no prescription, no doctor, no pharmacist, nothing,

(02:38):
no warning label that truly reflected potential dangers. She was
told it was help her relax, help her focus, help
her feel better. And at first that's exactly what it did.
But then the doses increased and she started getting sick
when she didn't take it. Then came withdrawal symptoms like vomiting, anxiety, tremors, sweating,

(03:03):
difficulty sleeping. Now, well, now she's currently sitting in rehab
battling an addiction that she never saw coming, and neither
did her parents. To say that they're devastated as an understatement, now,
this story isn't rare, and that's what makes this conversation
so important. So what exactly is tyaneptine. Well, Tyanepteine was

(03:26):
first developed decades ago, half a century ago, more than
a half a century ago, in like the nineteen sixties
by French researchers, and it was later approved in countries
throughout Europe, Asia Latin America under brand names like Stablon
and Coaxl. It was originally used as an antidepressant. Now
here's where things get a little bit interesting. For years,

(03:49):
scientists believe that tyaneptine worked primarily by increasing serotonin reuptake,
which is unusual because the popular antidepressants use like prozac
and zolof work by blocking serotonin reuptake, so they actually
do like the exact opposite thing, but yet they're both

(04:11):
being used for antidepressants. But later researchers discovered that may
not even be its most clinically significant effect. In fact,
tyaneptine also reacts. It also acts on the new opioid receptor.
Does that sound familiar to you, Well, it should immediately

(04:33):
raise some eyebrows because that's the same receptor involved in
many prescription opioids like OxyContin, vicodin, and non prescription opioids
like heroin. Now, to be very clear, tyaneptine is not
identical to heroin, but at high doses it can create
opioid like effects euphoria, you know that feeling of being

(04:56):
high and happy, sedation, dependence, addiction, withdrawal, and respiratory depression
meaning it makes you stop breathing, which is how people overdose.
So that's where things get dangerous. In the United States,
tyan epteene is not FDA approved for any medical use.
It's not let me repeat that, tyan epteene, gas station heroin,

(05:19):
whatever you want to call it, it is not an
FDA approved medication, and yet somehow it's found its way
into convenience stores, gas stations, smoke shops, and online retailers
under fun little names like Zaza Red, Tiana, Pegasus, Neptunes,
fix td red. They sound fun, don't they. I mean,

(05:43):
and you're getting them at the local convenience store. How
dangerous can they be? I mean they are being marketed
as brain boosters, neotropic mood enhancers, energy supplements. And this
is where consumers like you, like me, like anybody, can
get fooled because people think, well, if it's sold at

(06:05):
a gas station, it can't be that dangerous. Wrong, Absolutely wrong.
That assumption has gotten a lot of people hurt. Just
think about cigarettes. You never needed a prescription for them,
yet it's obvious and there is a plethora of data
showing it increases the risk of cancer, lung disease, and
other cardiovascular disease and a whole bunch of things. So

(06:27):
just because it's available at the convenience store doesn't mean
that it isn't harmful, and because it's so harmful. In
January twenty twenty four, the FDA actually issued a major
warning telling consumers not to buy or use any tin
ineptine products because of severe health risks, including seizures, loss

(06:48):
of consciousness, overdose, and death. Then things escalated even further.
In May twenty twenty five, about a year ago, my friend,
FDA Commissioner Marty McCarey issued another warning, specifically calling tyy
nepteine a dangerous and growing threat, particularly for young people.

(07:08):
The FDA said poison center calls involving ty nepteine have skyrocketed,
and according to recent federal data, poison center cases increase
from just four cases four throughout the entire country for
all of twenty thirteen to roughly three hundred and fifty
cases in twenty twenty four. Now that's a staggering increase,

(07:30):
and remember that's only reported cases. We know often that
more often than not, that a lot of people do
not actually report cases, especially if it's a quote unquote
mild overdose or they recover within twenty four hours. So
I think a lot more people are being poisoned by

(07:51):
some of these medications. Now, you may have heard of
the Neptunes Fixed outbreak. Maybe you did, maybe you didn't.
See published a report after multiple people became critically ill
after consuming what was called Neptune's fixed products containing tie
in eptein. Patients developed seizures, low blood pressure, rabid heart rates,

(08:14):
altered mental status, and many required ICU care. Investigators later
found that some products contain not just tie in eptein,
but also synthetic cannabinoids and other concerning substances. That's the
other issue with this unregulated marketplace. You may think you
know what you're buying, but often you don't. So let's

(08:34):
doom out for a second. Why are people turning to this?
Why is this even an issue? Because we have a
country filled with people struggling. I say this every single week, anxiety, depression,
chronic pain, burnout, loneliness, opioid withdrawal. People are desperate to
feel better, and when traditional health care feels inaccessible or

(08:57):
people don't want the stigma of asking for help, they
turn to shortcuts. That's where dangerous products thrive. This isn't
just a ty in epteen story. This is a bigger
story about regulatory loopholes. The supplement, gray market and a
mental health crisis colliding in real time. Now. Some states
have already started to step in, like Florida, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee,

(09:21):
and Alabama. They have all begun restricting or even banning
ti in epteen products. Some places are requiring warnings to
be placed on them. There's even bipartisan federal legislation being
discussed to classify it as a controlled substance. Frankly, it's overdue,
but I also want to be responsible here because this

(09:42):
is not about shaming addiction. Addiction can happen to absolutely anyone.
It can happen to the honor student, the athlete, the executive,
the mom just trying to hold everything together, the teenager
battling silent anxiety. And often it starts with someone simply
trying to feel better, to feel normal. That's why compassion matters,

(10:03):
and treatment matters even more, because access to legitimate mental
health care is very important. If you're listening right now,
you know I love to do my call fors. If
you're using tyan epteine, you're considering trying it, you know
someone who tries it, Please don't stop abruptly. Don't just
like grab it and then throw it away, especially if

(10:25):
you've been using it for a while, because you could
actually have withdrawal symptoms, and that itself can have you
end up in the hospital. Withdrawal can be severe. So
talk to your doctor, talk to an addiction specialist, reach
out to someone. And if you're a parent, please know
what your kids are buying online. Please know what they
have stuffed in their jacket pockets or in their backpacks.

(10:47):
Know what supplements they're taking. They may just say, oh,
it's nothing, it's just you know, it's like a five
hour energy drink or something that I grabbed at the
grocery store or at the you know, the gas station,
whatever it is. Pick it up up, look at it.
Make sure you know what your kids are taking, and
understand that legal does not always mean safe. I keep
thinking about my friend's daughter. She recently told me I

(11:11):
thought I was protecting her from dangerous drugs. She doesn't
smoke cigarettes, she doesn't vape, and as far as she knew,
she didn't do any of the quote unquote dangerous stuff.
She never imagined the dangerous drug would be sold next
to the energy drinks and the nicotine products. That hit
me pretty hard. Because it perfectly sums up the modern

(11:32):
drug crisis. Sometimes the biggest threats aren't hidden in dark alleys.
They're hiding in plain sight at your local gas station.
On your phone, there's one click away on some of
these online shops. If we don't educate people now, we're
going to keep seeing more family blindsided. And while I
do think that these products should be regulated, should be banned,

(11:52):
should have warnings on them, over regulation isn't always the answer.
It's education. It's educating the parents, educating the children, and
then also getting to the root cause of what's driving
them to seek artificial happiness, artificial euphoria. Why do they

(12:13):
need some external substance to feel better? These are all
things that we need to be talking about, we need
to be focusing on. If we don't educate people right now,
we're going to keep seeing more families blindsided. I'm doctor
Nicole Safire and this is Wellness on Mass. Make sure
to listen to Wellness on Mass on iHeartRadio, Apple podcasts wherever.
Get your podcasts and I'll talk to you next time.