For decades, media outlets have used sensational headlines as clickbait, often misrepresenting the content of the articles or the issues discussed. Recently, articles on the “risks of gas station heroin” and “the dangers of Zaza Red pills” have proliferated.
Yet, for the most part, these headlines are simply clickbait, designed to stir up controversy for clicks. They fail to educate the readers on the real benefits and real risks of the substances, stir up hysteria, and build upon preconceived notions of the comparison drug that denies an open-mindedness towards the new substance. The articles on the other side of the link are frequently full of unnecessary fear-mongering and lack scientific evidence.
So every time we see a click-baiting reporter or SEO freelancer call Zaza “gas station heroin” we get the urge to pack up and leave for Portugal or the Czech Republic. But at Top Tree headquarters, we do our best to channel our frustration with sensationalist drug reporting into productive, informative content. So we’re here to provide you with the not-at-all-sensationalized answer to the common question, “What is Zaza?”
Article Roadmap:
- What Is in Za Za Red, Neptune’s Fix, Pegasus Red, and Similar Products?
- What is Tianeptine? History, Effects, and Uses
- Why Is Tianeptine Called Gas Station Heroin?
- Why Media Reporting on “Gas Station Heroin” Could Be Exacerbating Tianeptine Issues
- Risks, Rewards, and the Importance of Informed Consumption
- Is Tianeptine Legal?
- Should You Buy Za Za Red Pills or Stay Away From Them?
The topic of tianeptine and misinformed drug culture is a vast one, so we decided to cover it in a four-part series called Harmful Headlines. The following is Part 1. Future articles in the series will explore kratom and tianeptine comparisons, how the “gas station heroin” narrative parallels the “legal morphine” nickname given to 7-hydroxymitragynine, and how dietary supplement laws may enable the sale of unreliable and unsafe products.
What Za Za Red Capsules, Neptune’s Fix Elixirs, and Pegasus Pills Have in Common: Tianeptine
Zaza may refer to a number of things, including a type of cannabis or the product Za Za Red. We’re going to focus on the latter, as well as a number of other increasingly popular products that have been dubbed “gas station heroin” by the media. These include:
- Za Za White, Za Za Silver, and Za Za Red pills/capsules (often spelled as zaza)
- Tiannaa Red, Tiannaa Green, and Tiannaa White capsules (often spelled as Tianna)
- TD Red and TD Mega extra strength capsules
- Hulu Tianeptine Kratom capsules
- Pegasus and Pegasus Red capsules
- Neptune’s Fix elixirs
But what is actually in them? The primary active component in these products is advertised to be tianeptine.
We say “typically” because it is impossible to say whether the active components of these products are the same day after day. Reports indicate that Zaza Red capsules have contained everything from kratom to akuamma to phenibut to GABA to caffeine to 5-HTP to vitamin B6 to kava leaf or kava extract.
How Much Tianeptine Is in Zaza, Pegasus, and Other Common Tianeptine Products?
It’s nearly impossible to know what Zaza Red is and how much tianeptine it contains without testing each batch. There are independent labs you can use to do this, like Kykeon Analytics (this isn’t sponsored, Kykeon is just a great service that members of the Top Tree team use personally).
However, no market should expect its consumers to test every product every time. Imagine if you had to send a bottle of Heineken to an independent lab for testing every time you opened a new pack to find out the alcohol content. Madness!
In addition to formulation issues, tianeptine products have serious labeling issues as well. Many are sold with incomplete ingredient lists and missing (or contradictory) instructions for use. For instance, many of the labels say “for research purposes only” but after that statement, recommended dosages are listed.
These shortcomings aren’t uncommon for smoke shop products. They often exist on the fringes of legality, as regulators strain to keep up with the frequent appearance of new products on the market.
Related: Top 5 Things to Look Out for to Find the Highest Quality Kratom
How have tianeptine manufacturers managed to continue production despite intense controversy surrounding their products? In part, it is because some states allow people to set up LLCs anonymously. This has enabled unscrupulous companies to exist without much accountability for issues in the marketplace.
Unfortunately, the products these companies sell are horrible representatives for tianeptine as a substance. They have enabled the production of widespread, sensationalist, unscientific, myth-confirming media coverage.
So let’s get a clearer picture of what tianeptine is, outside of the context of products like Zaza Red, Tiannaa, and Pegasus Red.
We analyzed one Za Za Red capsule and found it only contained maltodextrin and tianeptine. No kava compounds or anything else, despite listing Combretum quadrangular and Piper methysticum on the label. There were 27.5 milligrams of tianeptine in the capsule.
What Is Tianeptine? The Drug’s Strange History, Effects, and Uses
Researchers discovered tianeptine in 1969. It was first synthesized by Charles Malen, and has been sold under the brand names Stablon and Coaxil, among others.
The story of tianeptine begins like an ordinary, boring pharmaceutical. Clinical trials, patents, and pharmacists. In fact, it has been prescribed as an antidepressant for decades. Compared to other pharmaceuticals, it seems like it works. Studies have shown it to be as effective in reducing signs of depression in patients as the SSRI paroxetine. (Which was the 95th most prescribed drug in the world in 2021.) All this explains why tianeptine was widely prescribed in France in the 1980s. To this day it is still a legal medicine available via prescription in parts of Europe, South America, and Asia.
Tianeptine Pharmacology Myths: Early Misconceptions About How Tianeptine Works
Many studies on tianeptine have been performed with both humans and non-human animals. However, the results of early studies on tianeptine were disproven in the last decade. While there have been 10 years to correct the record, many reporters still cite outdated sources.
Rehabilitation Centers are Major Perpetuators of Tianeptine Myths
Most of the content you see online about tianeptine’s pharmacology is unfortunately inaccurate. For-profit rehabilitation centers fill Google’s search results for when you ask the questions “what is Zaza?” and “what is tianeptine?” These organizations are focused on converting people who are searching on Google, or their loved ones, into rehab patients. They parrot inaccurate information about tianeptine without doing real research.
One of their most commonly repeated falsehoods is that tianeptine is classified as a tricyclic antidepressant (TCA) which works through the serotonin system.
Crash Course: Monoamine Theory of Mood
The 20th Century Theory of What Causes Depression
In the 1950s, scientists developed the Monoamine Theory of Mood (also called the monoaminergic theory or the monoamine hypothesis of mood disorders). The main hypothesis of this theory was that imbalances of amines were causally linked to depression. The primary amines in question included the indoleamine serotonin and the catecholamines dopamine and norepinephrine.
Scientists believed that a deficiency of amines caused depression, while an excess of amines caused mania.
How the First Generation of Antidepressants Worked
Researchers then created the first generation of antidepressants. This generation began with monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs). Monoamine oxidase is an enzyme that breaks down serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. MAOIs prevent monoamine oxidase from working, and thus increase the amount of amines in the brain.
The next set of first-generation antidepressants were tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs). They are named for their chemical structure, which has three rings and a chain that branches off of the central ring. Common TCAs include amitriptyline, imipramine, and doxepin. These compounds are uptake blockers. They increase the levels of norepinephrine and serotonin by interfering with their reuptake into neurons.
The monoamine theory of mood has led to the proliferation of multiple classes of antidepressants beyond just MAOIs. Overall, these antidepressant drugs treat depression just 17% more effectively than a placebo. (Yet the placebos don’t come with all the negative side effects…)
Tianeptine Is Not a Tricyclic Antidepressant
While tianeptine has a similar butterfly-like molecular shape as tricyclic antidepressants, it is not a tricyclic antidepressant chemically or pharmacologically.
Tianeptine has some notable chemical differences from tricyclic antidepressants. For example, it contains sulfur and nitrogen atoms in place of some carbon atoms in the central ring.
Furthermore, tianeptine has no relation to TCAs pharmacologically.
In fact, when tianeptine first hit the market, it threw the whole field of depression research into a frenzy. Based on the Monoamine Theory of Mood, depression would be best treated by increasing the amount of serotonin in the synapse, for example by using a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI). Yet tianeptine purportedly acted as a selective serotonin reuptake enhancer (SSRE). The tianeptine pharmacology studies seemed to indicate that removing serotonin results in antidepressant effects.
Even though these decades-old studies on tianeptine’s mechanism of action have since been disproven, many people continue to claim that tianeptine works by modulating serotonin in the brain.
We recommend you don’t trust sources which claim that tianeptine is a tricyclic antidepressant, or that it affects the serotonin system. These sources may be lazily copying information from other inaccurate sources without any consideration of the research that has elucidated how tianeptine really works.
Tianeptine’s Actual Pharmacology: How Zaza Red Pills (Probably) Work
If tianeptine is not a selective serotonin reuptake enhancer, then what is it? Tianeptine is, quite simply, an opioid.
In 2014, the lab of Dalibor Sames at Columbia University laid to rest the existentialist threat to the monoamine theory of mood that tianeptine previously posed. The Sames lab worked with Dr. Bryan Roth to screen a panel of 51 human neurotransmitter receptors and transporters. Of these 51 sites, they found that in the low range of therapeutic dosages of tianeptine, only the mu-opioid receptor (MOR) was engaged. At higher therapeutic dosages they found that the delta-opioid receptor might have been contributing to the effects as well.
The downstream effect of activity at the opioid receptors involves modulation of glutamate transmission. Combined with well-documented psychological effects of opioids, these factors explain tianeptine’s antidepressant effects. This occurs without directly involving the serotonin system.
There is little question now as to how tianeptine works. So why do we say Zaza Red pills “probably” work in this way? This is because, as we mentioned earlier, Zaza Red capsules may contain psychoactive compounds other than tianeptine.
Tianeptine Dependency and Comparisons to Other Drugs
Though a decade has passed since scientists discovered tianeptine’s real pharmacology, many organizations still fail to recognize that tianeptine is an opioid.
Rehabilitation websites say things like, “Tianeptine is compared to opioids because of its strength and its high potential for addiction and abuse.” They also claim that “many health effects of tianeptine imitate those of opioids, including toxicity, dependence, and withdrawal.” All the while they continue to call tianeptine a TCA that acts on serotonin.
Tianeptine is an opioid agonist, but studies show marked differences in tianeptine compared to other opioids. Studies on rodents have shown that dependency and tolerance are less of an issue with tianeptine than with classical opiates.
As a caveat, the amount of tianeptine that some humans are consuming seem to be far larger than the doses that produce safe and reliable effects without significant side effects. There are many case studies of use exceeding 3.5 grams a day, as well as anecdotal reports of extreme consumption. This amount is orders of magnitude higher than the standard prescribed amount. A standard tianeptine dose prescribed by a doctor is around 12.5mg, with an upper level around 50mg.
When consuming the larger multi-gram amounts, overdoses are rare, but withdrawal is unpleasant. Many people struggle to quit tianeptine use after regular heavy consumption.
Why Do People Call Tianeptine Gas Station Heroin?
The media frequently use the term “gas station heroin” to describe tianeptine. This nickname makes some literal sense. Tianeptine is an opioid agonist, as is heroin, and some gas stations do sell it. However, the real reason the media use the nickname is more complex.
The nickname subliminally implies that tianeptine is a “bad drug.” Moreover, headlines such as, “Drug Known as Gas Station Heroin Outlawed by Attorney General” likely grab more attention than headlines like, “Where Tianeptine Is Sold and Why You Should Be Cautious When Consuming It.”
Manufacturers and retailers of products like Zaza Red capsules have certainly made themselves easy targets for criticism with their undisclosed dosing, deceptive marketing, and failure to provide instructions for safe use. These irresponsible behaviors have resulted in consumer harm that the pharmaceutical space has by and large avoided. But does the compound tianeptine deserve to be called “gas station heroin” because of the actions of these brands?
We’d argue no. In fact, the name “gas station heroin” is not just unwarranted, but may be doing more harm than good for consumers.
Why Media Reporting on “Gas Station Heroin” Could Be Exacerbating Tianeptine Issues
What came first, proliferation of tianeptine on the gray market, or sensationalized media reporting on tianeptine?
Are irresponsible vendors, with their unscrupulous marketing tactics, entirely to blame for tianeptine’s rise in popularity? Likely not. In fact, we may be able to trace a significant portion of tianeptine’s popularity to the proliferation of “gas station heroin” headlines and posts.
The Historical Role of Media in Creating Drug Hysteria
There is a serious which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg issue that exists around drug consumption and media reporting on drugs.
Drug sensationalism has been the currency of media outlets for ages. Media sources notoriously care more about getting attention than about honestly informing their readers. Outlets of all sizes and prominence have fallen into this trap, including The New York Times, the New York Post, the Miami Herald, Vice, ABC, NBC, and PBS, among others.
Repeatedly throughout history, journalists have listed a new “legal” drug, described its effects, and told their readers how to get it. These pieces have inadvertently advertised for the products they are supposedly trying to scare people away from. Education is key to harm reduction, yet these media outlets often pique the interest of people and convert them into consumers—but dangerously uninformed ones.
We don’t yet have data on how the sales of tianeptine products have correlated with media attention. However, this trend has been measured for other drugs, and there is no reason to believe that tianeptine is any different.
Huffing Airplane Glue: How the Media Fueled A Drug “Menace”
In the Consumers Union Report on Licit and Illicit Drugs, Edward M. Brecher discusses the origins and impact of glue-sniffing as a “nationwide drug menace.” This article has become the seminal work in critiquing media coverage of drugs and the acceleration of harms associated with sensationalistic coverage.
How Media Coverage Led to the Proliferation of Glue-Sniffing
The first detailed media coverage of glue-sniffing appeared in 1959 in Denver, Colorado. Medical experts downplayed the dangers, but dramatic headlines and warnings in the media led to the practice spreading rapidly across the U.S. The stories led to an increase in reported cases by June 1960. By that time, police had investigated around 50 cases.
In response to the glue-sniffing trend, policymakers passed new legislation, the police made numerous arrests, and the media published exaggerated health warnings. In 1959, the reported risks of glue-sniffing were potential anemia and brain damage. Newspapers must not have been selling fast enough, as by 1960 warnings claimed the practice led to death.
Yet these responses continually worsened the problem, as sensational coverage acted as a lure for more users. In fact, most children who sniffed glue had first found out about it through the newspaper. Surveys in the late 1960s showed that 5% to 8% of high school students had tried glue-sniffing, a significant increase from before 1959.
Arrests for glue-sniffing in Denver rose from 95 in 1960 to 278 in 1961. Similar media coverage in New York led to 778 arrests within 15 months and 2,003 arrests in 1963.
If you’d like to learn more about how sloppy media coverage can have unintended consequences, we recommend reading Brecher’s full report.
Calling Things “Gas Station Heroin” or “Gas Station Crack” Hurts People
The terms “gas station heroin” and “gas station crack” are lazy and mean very little. People use them to fear-monger without giving an audience meaningful information about the substance. Media sources and individuals have used these nicknames to describe kratom as well, a plant which tianeptine shares very little in common with.
Sure, “gas station heroin” does accurately imply to the audience that the substance in question is an opioid. But saying that something is an opioid actually tells us very little about it.
A wide range of substances have opioid activity, from endorphins to the metabolites of breastmilk to Imodium to poppy seeds. The fact that a compound has activity at the opioid receptor, in and of itself, does not make it harmful. Yet our society has become increasingly opiophobic because leaders continually treat opioids as scapegoats for socioeconomic issues and deaths with causes that scientists cannot easily understand.
Opioid Phobia on Social Media: Gas Station Crack Goes Viral
Heroin and cocaine are value-neutral molecules. They are not inherently good or bad, even though humans can use them for good or bad reasons. But society has denigrated them for reasons unrelated to scientific evidence of heroin’s or cocaine’s potential harms. So people use the “gas station heroin” and “gas station crack” nicknames to denigrate tianeptine and kratom by implying that these substances are “bad,” just as heroin and cocaine are “bad.”
Related: Want to know more about what heroin is and how prohibitionism has actually amplified the risks of heroin consumption? Check out Dr. Carl Hart’s book, Drug Use for Grown Ups.
At the end of the day, if tianeptine is stripped of all its nuance and people are told that it is exactly like a drug that is actually quite different, consumers will become less informed, and the risks of tianeptine may increase.
Risks, Rewards, and the Importance of Informed Consumption
Everything in life has some degree of risk. When you’re an informed consumer, you can calculate whether the potential risks are worth the rewards. Fried foods, sweets, over-the-counter and prescription drugs all have potential adverse effects in the short term and the long term. Still, we each get to weigh the potential benefits and drawbacks of these things, then make our own decision of whether or not to consume them.
For example, you may choose to only have sweets in the evening so you don’t get a sugar kick and then crash in the middle of the workday. Perhaps you avoid drinking coffee after 5pm. You might put a lot of thought into the decision to consume certain medications or kratom powder or multivitamins.
But when you don’t know what you’re consuming, you can’t make an accurate risk-reward calculation. You can’t plan your usage to optimize the benefits and reduce the risks.
Dose and Context Matter, Not Just Chemical Structure
If you consume a common, socially accepted product without informing yourself of its effects, contraindications, and risks, you can have an adverse experience.
You could take an over-the-counter medication without reading the label and fail to realize that it has a contraindication with another medication you take. You could have a drink at a party without knowing it contains caffeine and then find yourself unable to sleep that night. Or you could eat a kratom gummy with an undisclosed strength and get “the wobbles.”
On the flip side, even if a substance is less commonly consumed and considered “dangerous” you could have a positive experience with it by thoroughly educating yourself and consuming it with forethought and care. For example, fentanyl has a terrible reputation due to its black-market consumption. Yet, people use it effectively and safely to treat things like post-surgical pain in hospitals across the globe.
Just like fentanyl, tianeptine is developing an ugly reputation. As a society, we need to be mindful of how this reputation is influenced by unscrupulous business practices, media sensationalism, and irresponsible consumption, rather than an innate issue with tianeptine as a compound. Remember, when consumed at the right dose in the right context, tianeptine is as effective as classical antidepressants.
Is Tianeptine Legal?
What came first, sensationalized media reporting on tianeptine or tianeptine bans in the United States?
With the influx of bad brands and news stories on the “dangers of gas station heroin” has come serious scrutiny of tianeptine from policymakers at all levels of government. Multiple states and localities have prohibited tianeptine, including (but not limited to):
- Indiana: Added to Schedule I through emergency rule in February of 2022
- Florida: Added to Schedule I through emergency rule in September of 2023
- Georgia: Passed HB 963 to add tianeptine to Schedule I in May of 2022
- Michigan: Passed SB 801 to add tianeptine sodium to Schedule II in April of 2018
- Kentucky: Added to Schedule I through emergency administrative regulation in March of 2023
- Mississippi: Passed HB 4 and added tianeptine to Schedule I in July of 2023
- Ohio: Added to Schedule I through Executive Order 2022-17D in December of 2022
- Tennessee: Passed HB 2043/SB 1997 to add all preparations to Schedule II in June of 2022
- Maryland: Prohibited retailers from distributing, selling, or advertising kratom products in April of 2024
- Louisiana: Passed SB 17 to add tianeptine to Schedule I in May of 2024
- Northlake, IL: Banned tianeptine sales in April of 2024
Some states like Maryland introduced tianeptine legislation alongside kratom legislation due to the overlaps in their consumer base and retail sales practices. While kratom is still legal in Maryland, the tianeptine regulation bill was amended and prohibits tianeptine sales in the state.
Federal Tianeptine Ban Attempt
Tianeptine is legal at the federal level, but legislators have made attempts to ban it. In January, Representatives Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) and August Pfluger (R-TX) sponsored a bill to add tianeptine to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act. The bill was named the Scheduling Tianeptine and Analogues Now to Defend Against Emerging Opioids Act. It has not made any progress since late January.
The FDA has not approved tianeptine for any medical uses, and has listed tianeptine products as a “health fraud scam” on their website.
Unfortunately, tianeptine laws perpetuate misinformation about tianeptine like the inaccuracies found on rehab websites. For example, Florida’s emergency rule to add kratom to the state list of Schedule I substances states that, “Tianeptine is often found in combination with other illicit substances such as benzodiazepines and opioids.”
Is Tianeptine Good? Should You Buy Zaza Red Capsules or Stay Away From Them?
If you landed on this page simply because you had heard about tianeptine and were trying to find out where to buy Zaza Red pills or similar products, we’re grateful you made it through the history and pharmacology of tianeptine and gas station heroin first.
Our honest opinion about whether or not you should buy tianeptine products is this: we don’t think tianeptine is intrinsically bad, but we do not trust the companies that are manufacturing tianeptine products for recreational use.
We don’t recommend buying Za Za Red capsules, Pegasus capsules, Hulu kratom tianeptine combinations, TD Red, or any other tianeptine-containing proprietary blend. It’s impossible to know how much tianeptine is in Zaza Red capsules or the other products listed. Thus, it’s impossible to know how to safely consume them, even if they provide directions for use on the label. (Additionally, as tianeptine faces bans across the United States, it’s possible that these companies may stop using tianeptine in their products altogether.)
Further, these companies don’t provide useful contact information on their labels, even though dietary supplement manufacturers are legally required to do so. If you have a bad experience, there is no easy way to reach out to the companies for recourse. They cannot be held accountable for quality control issues or customer concerns.
If you decide to buy tianeptine from a reputable source, here are a few recommendations. It is best to consume it by itself with no other psychoactive substances in your system. Make sure everything you consume has been lab tested and use a scale to weigh your dose. These mindful consumption behaviors are essential for preventing adverse events and the development of self-destructive habits.
Educate Yourself, Be Skeptical, and Make Decisions That Will Support Long-Term Wellbeing
For over a century, the media have mischaracterized substances for their own benefit. They have failed to provide thorough explanations of various drugs’ activity and have used drugs as scapegoats for deeper societal issues.
Despite the well-established negative effects of this type of journalism, it continues to proliferate with little criticism. Whether the “scary” drug is tianeptine, kratom, cannabis, heroin, or LSD, approach these stories skeptically. These drugs do come with risks, but they aren’t always the risks that media sources are telling you about.
In the next installment of Harmful Headlines series, we’ll be explaining how kratom and tianeptine differ, and the many reasons why consumers, politicians, journalists, and others are mixing up them up.
Harmful Headlines Series Continued
2. Kratom vs. Tianeptine Explained: Why They’re Lumped Together Despite Their Differences.
3. How the Nickname “Legal Morphine” Can Make 7-OH More Dangerous
4. Dangers of Proprietary Blends in Gray Market Industries
