The Food and Drug Administration is warning health officials about the grave dangers tied to those brightly colored energy shots known as “gas station heroin.”
Last month, the FDA alerted health professionals about the serious threat posed by “gas station heroin”—energy supplements marketed as a flavored elixir called Neptune’s Fix, AP News reports. The agency cites the products’ use of tianeptine, an unapproved drug linked to addiction and serious side effects.
The FDA’s warning is in response to a 2024 U.S. Poison Control Center report, which shows a steady increase in calls related to the drug over the past decade.
“It’s kind of this grey area of consumer products, or supplements, where the contents are not regulated or tested the way they would be with a medication,” said Dr. Diane Calello of the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System.
Calello and her team published a 2024 study highlighting a wave of emergency calls in New Jersey tied to Neptune’s Fix. After drinking it, people experienced everything from seizures to dangerously low blood pressure, with over half of the 20 patients ending up in intensive care.
While tianeptine is approved as a low-dose antidepressant in several other countries, it has never been approved by the FDA for any medical use in the U.S. As a result, it cannot be legally added to foods, beverages, or sold as a dietary supplement, a point the FDA has repeatedly emphasized to U.S. companies.
Despite the FDA’s warnings and its non-approval of tianeptine, some companies still sell it under names such as Zaza, Tianaa, Pegasus, and TD Red. It’s technically illegal, but slips through the cracks since the FDA doesn’t pre-approve ingredients in supplements and drinks.
“You never quite know what’s in that bottle,” Calello said. “It’s important for people to know that even if they have used a product before, they could get a bottle that contains something very different from what they’re looking for.”
Because tianeptine is not listed under the federal Controlled Substances Act, about a dozen states have taken action to ban or restrict it, including Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Tennessee. In some cases, those restrictions have triggered an increase in withdrawal cases, as tianeptine can be chemically addictive. Alabama once had the highest rate of tianeptine-related calls in the southern United States, with reports increasing by more than 1,400% from 2018 to 2021. However, after the state implemented a ban in 2021, calls began to decline slightly, while they continued to rise in neighboring states.
RELATED CONTENT: Marc Lamont Hill Recounts 2024 Stage Attack While Upholding Restorative Justice Principles
