Can I Get Arrested For Possession Of Tianeptine?

Most drugs of abuse are prescription drugs that are sometimes legal for medical use.  If you have ever had surgery, you have probably been under the influence of fentanyl, albeit a tiny dose carefully monitored by an anesthesiologist.  Even cocaine is Schedule II, because surgeons can use it topically to prevent bleeding during eye surgery.  Schedule I drugs, which have no legally accepted medical uses, have lost their mystique.  Heroin used to be the final frontier in the Jazz Age, or even as recently as the days of Trainspotting, but it is a fraction as scary as fentanyl.  State laws bend the rules about drugs federally classified as Schedule I on the regular; consider that cannabis is Schedule I at the federal level, but you wouldn’t know that from smoking weed in California or Colorado or even from buying gummies.  The drugs whose reputations truly precede them are the ones that used to be legally approved prescription drugs, but which lost their legal status because they were too dangerous or too tempting.  Quaaludes, we hardly knew you.  Here, our Miami drug crimes defense lawyer explains the legal issues surrounding tianeptine, a wannabe prescription drug that may or may not be available at gas stations but is certainly illegal.

The Old School Antidepressant That Never Was

The folks who first synthesized tianeptine in France in the 1960s were trying to make a drug similar to the antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs that were then available.  The molecular structure of tianeptine looks a lot like the tricyclic antidepressants that tried in vain to assuage the ennui of mid-century housewives.  It was available by prescription in several countries, starting with France in the 1980s, where it was sold under the brand name Stablon.

The United States started clinical trials for tianeptine in 2009, but they were discontinued in 2012, without the drug ever gaining legal approval.  Meanwhile, what happened between the 1980s and 2012?  Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, and a host of other new rugs to treat depression and anxiety.  These new drugs, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are more effective at treating symptoms of depression with fewer side effects than the older tricyclic antidepressants, which no one would take unless the only other options were electroconvulsive therapy or a lobotomy.  Therefore, tianeptine has never been available for medical use in the United States, even though a new clinical trial of tianeptine began in New York in late 2023, but as it gained acceptance in other countries, it entered the worldwide illegal drug supply.

How Tianeptine Became Gas Station Heroin

Medical researchers in the U.S. never became convinced of the benefits of tianeptine, but for people who swallowed it or snorted it, the appeal was unmistakable.  Users, including some who continue to speak freely on the Internet about their experiences, described its effects to those of opioids.  Laws banning tianeptine went into effect in many countries.  The United States did not officially list tianeptine as a Schedule I drug until 2024, but it has been illegal in Bahrain since 2003.

Meanwhile, tianeptine began to turn up in those shady energy supplements that one finds near the cash registers in gas stations, even though it is illegal to use it as an ingredient in dietary supplements.  Thus, it came to be known as gas station heroin.  Truck drivers driving under the influence of something that feels like an opioid is as dangerous as it sounds.

Schedule I Drugs Are Schedule I Because I Say They Are

Yes, tianeptine is a Schedule I controlled substance, and yes, this means that it is more illegal than fentanyl, but the difference is not as big as it seems.  Drug Schedules are a purely legal concept.  The term “schedule” in the phrase “Schedule I drug” refers to a list of drugs in the federal Controlled Substances Act.  Lawmakers categorized tianeptine under Schedule I; the laws of chemistry did not.

What this means for your case is that, unlike with prescription drugs that have gained popularity for recreational use, people accused of tianeptine possession cannot argue that they possessed the drug legally and are using it as medically indicated.  Many other legal defenses can apply, though, such as whether the drug was truly in your possession and whether law enforcement violated your rights by searching for the drug.

Contact Our Criminal Defense Attorneys

A South Florida criminal defense lawyer can help you defend yourself against criminal charges of possession of tianeptine.  Contact Ratzan & Faccidomo in Miami, Florida for a confidential consultation about your case.

Source:

npr.org/2024/07/12/nx-s1-4865955/tianeptine-gas-station-heroin-drug