Tianeptine, found at convenience stores, at smoke shops and online, can mimic an opioid. It is among a growing class of substances that are difficult to control.
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Often sold as a dietary supplement and promoted by retailers as a mood booster and focus aid, tianeptine is among a growing, unregulated class of potentially addictive products available in gas stations, convenience stores and smoke shops and across the internet. They typically include synthetic pharmaceuticals and plant-derived substances.
Some, like kratom and phenibut, can be addictive and, in rare cases, fatal. They often originate in other countries, including Indonesia and Russia, where they are commonly used, even prescribed, for mood management. But the Food and Drug Administration has not approved them as medicines in the United States.
“Tianeptine is an emerging threat,” said Kaitlyn Brown, clinical managing director of America’s Poison Centers, which represents and collects data from 55 centers nationwide. “We have people who are able to get a substance that’s not well regulated, that has abuse potential and that, in high doses, can cause similar effects to opioids, leading to really harmful outcomes.”
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Tianeptine is a drug developed by French researchers in the 1960s as an antidepressant. It is approved in low doses for that use in many European, Asian and Latin American countries.
But at higher doses, it also works much as an opioid does, delivering short-lived euphoria. In the United States, many people take tianeptine under the widespread, mistaken belief that it is a safe alternative to street opioids like fentanyl or heroin, or even a way to taper off using them. On social media sites like Reddit, its merits are hotly debated, with more than 5,000 people subscribing to a “Quitting Tianeptine” forum.
As someone who used drugs for years and is all for the legalization of drugs like mushrooms, acid and MDMA I’m fucking astounded Kratom is legal
I get psychedelics, but if you want MDMA to be legal there’s no reason kratom shouldn’t be.
I think MDMA has a higher likelihood to help people through therapy, Kratom is just a way to nod out (imo)
Kratom doesn’t make you nod out though - it’s actually the oposite, unless you take huge doses.
It gives you energy, it’s great for productivity.
As long as you don’t overdo it of course, but that’s true for any psychoactive substances.
Edit: wanna add, if we’re talking medical, agreed, mdma is more important. If recreational, not so sure
There’s different kinds. I took a strain that helped me sleep too. But that stuff is pretty nasty tasting and you need to take a shit ton to get a strong effect, when I took it it was a pretty mild effect since I didn’t try to take a ton. I think it’d be easier to abuse NyQuil.
Try it with orange juice, makes it go down much easier
Crystal Light lemonade works just as well, maybe better. Unless you want all that sugar.
That’s fair, I’m actually an addict so the idea of taking anything not in huge doses is foreign to me, that’s why I had to go to rehab lol
Heard ppl actually use kratom to taper off of other opioids. It acts on the same receptors mostly afaik, but has the nice feature of being limited by an enzyme you’ve got in your gut somewhere, so it’s hard to overdose.
Yeah, I’ve heard the same, ofc it’s anecdotal but most of the people I know that have done that still wound up using heroin again but yes it’s definitely a plus
As far as drugs go kratom is super mild though. I think off the shelf NyQuil is way stronger. No offense, and hope you’re managing it, but you being easily addicted is more a you problem than something that laws should be shaped around.
I agree with you. People seem to think everyone has the addictive response, when people like me have such a muted response.
I have spent the last 20 years with Chronic Nerve pain. Morphine doesn’t work with me, and I rarely feel alcohol unless it’s at poisonous levels. I tried to use Cannabis for pain management and spent almost $3K a year for two years of buying the highest potency I could find. I spent those years constantly smoking or vaping every hour to try to control the pain. I ended up damaging my blood vessels in my brain.
Even in pain management at the VA they won’t give me the medication that works and just throw massive amounts of buprenorphine at me, which does nothing.
I understand that some people have a problem, but for me I wish their voices would stop being amplified over the reality that people need access to opioid pain medication. Tylenol is not what people should have to take for major damage.
I bet a nice light dose of MDMA with a good/group therapist you trust would be incredibly beneficial. It’s hard on the body but once or twice per year (or whatever) isn’t going to hurt an adult. Feeling that connection with others and your own feelings is something a lot of people are missing in their lives IMO.
I could see kratom maybe having some pain management effects but that’s about it.
I mean it’s really not as bad as real opiates/opioids. It is pretty impossible to overdose on the kratom leaf, itself. It is addicting, and there are withdrawal symptoms, but nothing like actual opiate withdrawals. It can be a helpful thing for opiate addicts to get off of harder stuff, or as pain management. I have an ex who is clean and sober thanks to that stuff, so maybe I am biased by that experience.
But it’s obvious to us all that making stuff illegal doesn’t help anyone except private prisons and sadistic cops and all of the growing number and assortment of private industries profiting off of prisoners (from phone calls to inedible food to companies using prisoners as slave labor), and actually causes way more harm than being proactive, right?
I’m not advocating that we ought to make it illegal, just a surprise that it isn’t