…to know about the drug known as ‘gas station heroin’
Tianeptine has already become part of the nation’s struggle with opioids. Drug dealers have used it to make counterfeit hydrocodone and oxycodone pills… or to fill baggies made to resemble heroin packages.
In their work, Jonathan Javitch, a professor at Columbia University and a research psychiatrist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, Dali and their colleagues found that tianeptine targets the mu opioid receptor, which is named for morphine and controls pleasure, pain relief and need. The finding was shocking, Javitch said, given the ongoing opioid crisis. Even more surprising: Tianeptine didn’t just bind to the opioid receptor. “It actually activates the receptor like other opioids do, like morphine or like oxycodone or like fentanyl,” Javitch said.
Original Article (NPR):
8 things to know about the drug known as ‘gas station heroin’
Artwork Fair Use: Towelbin
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