N.C. Rep. Frank Sossamon, recently appointed to serve on the House Select Committee on Substance Abuse, said he would like to see the state ban the sale of products that contain tianeptine, which is being referred to as “gas station heroin.”
Sossamon was a guest on Wednesday’s TownTalk and said eight other states have banned the drug and he said North Carolina should join them.
“North Carolina should follow suit,” he said. “The easiest and quickest thing to do is just ban it,” he said.
Tianeptine is not approved for medical use by the Food and Drug Administration, although it is an ingredient in a number of widely available products sold at gas stations and convenience stores as “cognitive enhancers,” according to information on the FDA website.
It is an opioid type drug linked to overdoses and death, Sossamon explained. He said he looks forward to the first meeting of the substance abuse committee, scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 13 at 10 a.m. in Raleigh.
He said the committee will hear from experts and others whose loved ones have died from taking the drug. “I don’t know what all we’ll recommend, but I hope it will be effective to protect the citizens of North Carolina.”
The drug is used in other countries to treat depression and anxiety, but in the U.S. it is a Schedule I controlled substance. This means it has a high potential for abuse, Sossamon said.
“When you begin to read some of the material, it’s a no-brainer that it should be banned.”
Whether it should be a permanent ban or just a pause is part of what the committee can determine during its research and investigation into the issue.
The FDA is sometimes slow in taking action to ban something, and that’s why states have taken steps to prevent the products from being sold.
“The drug, evidently, has some positive effects if it’s used properly,” Sossamon noted, but if it is not regulated there’s a greater likelihood for abuse. It can come in pill or powder form and Sossamon said it’s even in a product that looks like a lollipop.
“We’ve got to ban it until we know more about it,” he said. “I don’t want it on my watch that somebody dies when I had a voice and an opportunity to ban it.”
