Gas Station Heroin is an emerging threat in our state and we will be focusing this topic during the upcoming Knock Out Opioid Abuse Learning Series Webinar on February 29.

Expert panelists Bruce Ruck, PharmD, from the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System and Matthew Salzman, MD, of Cooper Medical School of Rowan University will discuss “Emerging Threats Within the Opioid Crisis.”

Ruck, along with last month’s webinar expert, Dr. Lewis Nelson, were among the authors of a report on Gas Station Heroin and other threats that appeared in a recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The article referenced thirteen residents of New Jersey who required intensive medical treatment after consuming products purchased in convenience stores known as “gas station heroin.” The products contained multiple drugs, including tianeptine, a drug that is “not approved by the Federal Drug Administration for any medical use but is illegally sold with claims to improve brain function and treat anxiety, depression, pain, opioid use disorder and other conditions.” 

Regarding the situation in New Jersey, “It was a surprise to find those compounds in there at all,” senior study author Dr. Diane Calello, medical director of the New Jersey Poison Control Center, told NBC News. “That’s probably not what the people who bought those products were looking for.”

PDFNJ will continue to provide information on tianeptine and other substances during the next Knock Out Opioid Abuse Day Learning Series webinar, “Emerging Threats Within the Opioid Crisis,” at 11 a.m. Thursday, February 29. This is the second webinar in the 2024 series, which is held in conjunction with the Office of the New Jersey Coordinator for Addiction Responses and Enforcement Strategies (NJ CARES) and the Opioid Education Foundation of America (OEFA).

Click HERE for more information and to register.

Call Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222 to connect to your local poison center.