My 19-year-old son died after using ‘gas station heroin’ to treat his migraines – now I’m fighting to have it banned in every state

An Alabama mother is urging health officials to ban a toxic supplement sold at gas stations after her 19-year-old son died after taking it to relieve his migraines.

Johnathon Morrison, of Trafford, Alabama, fatally choked on his own vomit in February 2019 after taking pills containing tianeptine – also known as “gas station heroin.”

The Food and Drug Administration has previously warned about the serious harm of the substance, which is most commonly found in an energy-boosting product called Neptune’s Fix.

The substance, called tianeptine, is also legally available in the form of capsules and pills in many states — and delivers an intense high similar to an opioid, according to the FDA.

After her son’s death, Kristi Terry was determined to ban the substance in Alabama – and a year later the state became the second to make the drug illegal.

Now tianeptine is banned in eight states, but Ms. Terry wants to increase that number.

Mrs. Terri told me Shame that the night before her son’s death, he entered her bedroom and asked if she could cook pizza rolls.

She said, “We were like, ‘You don’t have to ask to cook anything.'”

She wished she had gotten up to see if he wasn’t feeling well, wondering if he was sick from the pills and trying to settle his stomach with food.

The next time she saw her son, he was dead.

Paramedics tried to revive Mr Morrison for 60 minutes but were unable to.

A medical report obtained by Vice revealed that he had high levels of tianeptine in his system. According to the report, the teen died of choking on his vomit and his death was ruled an accident.

The coroner added in a report that levels of tianeptine in his blood were similar to levels found in another reported tianeptine fatality in which no other drugs were detected.

At least four deaths have been reported among people consuming tianeptine since it appeared in the US in the mid-2010s.

But the number of poisonings is increasing, rising sharply over the past twenty years, from reports of just eleven poisonings between 2000 and 2013 to 151 in 2020.

FDA officials say tianeptine can produce a high similar to some opioids, but warned that many patients quickly become addicted because they can quickly build up a tolerance to the substance.

Health officials also warn that people who consume tianeptine may experience confusion, sweating, a fast heart rate, blood pressure spikes, nausea, vomiting and agitation.

Some may also experience a marked slowing of breathing and, in rare cases, a total shutdown of the respiratory system, which can lead to coma or death.

Mr Morrison was unaware of the risks associated with tianeptine. The University of Alabama student purchased the product as a gas station, hoping to relieve his migraines.

Looking for pain medication, an employee offered the teen Tianna, a popular brand of tianeptine.

Ms. Terry told Vice that her son “had no idea what he was taking. They told him it was all natural, plant-based and it was like high-potency Tylenol.”

Over the next few hours, he took several pills at once, eventually overdosing.

The extent to which tianeptine toxicity contributed to Morrison’s death, “either directly due to the toxic effects of the drug or indirectly by potentially lowering his seizure threshold, remains uncertain,” the autopsy said.

After her son died, Ms. Terry, who was bedridden after the teen’s death with post-traumatic stress disorder, was determined to have the substance banned in Alabama and testified at a Senate health care hearing in February 2020.

“He was just the light of my life and he was my best friend,” she said, according to an audio recording of the hearing.

Also testifying at the hearing was James Morrissette, CEO and founder of MT Brands, a company that makes Tianaa.

He said the product is marketed as a means of relieving stress and anxiety, but people are beginning to abuse the product.

Mr Morrissette also said he supported stronger regulations to ban the substance and raise the age limit for purchasing the product.

A year after the hearing, Alabama became the second state to ban tianeptine, following Florida, which classifies the drug in the same category as heroin.

Since then, six states have followed suit.

However, Mrs Terry believes not enough is being done and says it is making her ‘sick’; that there are millions of Americans who can still buy the drug legally – and easily.

She added, “I feel like Johnathon’s story got it banned in Alabama. Really and truly. The senators and everyone had to look at my son’s picture.”