Connecticut banned tianeptine, kratom, and five other unregulated substances this week, joining a growing list of states moving to pull so-called "gas station heroin" from shelves before more people get hurt. The ban takes effect on Wednesday.

According to Breitbrat, the state's Department of Consumer Protection and Attorney General William Tong announced the action together, adding 7-hydroxymitragynine, Bromazolam, Flubromazolam, Nitazenes, and Phenibut to the list of outlawed substances alongside tianeptine and kratom. Fourteen states have now officially classified tianeptine as a controlled substance. Kratom is banned in at least seven.

Connecticut isn't just passing a rule and hoping for compliance. Tong said he's going directly after the supply chain.

"Today, I am mailing letters to every known distributor and manufacturer of these substances to ensure full awareness and compliance with the law."

He followed that with a warning that left little room for interpretation.

"These companies are on notice—if you sell in Connecticut, we will know, and we will hold you accountable."

Unregulated, Untested, and Sold Next to the Energy Drinks

The term "gas station heroin" exists for a reason. These products sit on shelves in convenience stores and smoke shops, packaged to look like supplements or wellness products, purchased by anyone who walks through the door. No prescription. No age verification. No FDA approval.

Department of Consumer Protection Commissioner Bryan Cafferelli laid out the problem plainly:

"These substances have no approved medical use and have been widely available for sale in establishments easily accessed by children and other vulnerable populations. These products were never regulated, tested, or otherwise deemed safe for human consumption, but have been marketed as health products, misleading people to assume they are safe when, in fact, they are addictive, have a high potential for misuse, and pose a serious threat to public health and safety."

Read that again carefully. Products that were never tested or regulated for human consumption were marketed as health products. Consumers, including children, were led to believe they were safe. They are not. They are addictive, dangerous, and completely uncontrolled.

This is what happens when regulatory agencies sleep at the wheel for years while an entire shadow pharmaceutical market grows in plain sight at your local gas station.

The FDA Finally Caught Up

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has acknowledged that tianeptine is not approved for any medical use in the United States. The agency's own statement describes the scope of the failure:

"Tianeptine, a drug, is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for any medical use. Despite that, some companies are distributing and selling unlawful products containing tianeptine to consumers, including products with high doses. They are also making dangerous and unproven claims that tianeptine can improve brain function and treat anxiety, depression, pain, opioid use disorder, and other conditions."

Companies are selling unapproved drugs with unproven medical claims, at high doses, directly to consumers. That's not a gray area. That's a public health scandal that festered because nobody with authority acted fast enough.

The Trump administration's FDA Commissioner, Dr. Martin Makary, sounded the alarm last May, calling the free availability of these products a "dangerous and growing health trend" leading to "serious harm." That kind of direct language matters. It signals that the federal government recognizes the threat, even as enforcement has largely fallen to individual states.

States are Filling a Vacuum

Fourteen states classifying tianeptine as a controlled substance is real progress, but it also highlights an uncomfortable truth: this is happening state by state because federal action hasn't kept pace. The products are sold across state lines. Manufacturers operate nationally. A patchwork of state bans means a distributor blocked in Connecticut can still ship freely to a state that hasn't acted yet.

That's not an argument against what Connecticut is doing. It's an argument for more states to follow, and quickly.

The conservative case here is straightforward. This isn't about expanding government power for its own sake. It's about the government doing one of the few things it's actually supposed to do: protecting citizens, especially children, from products that are demonstrably harmful, deceptively marketed, and sold without any of the safeguards that apply to actual pharmaceuticals. A company that slaps a wellness label on an addictive, unapproved drug and sells it at a gas station isn't exercising free enterprise. It's committing fraud.

Tong Enlists Consumers

Connecticut's attorney general also took the unusual step of asking consumers themselves to help enforce the ban. His message was blunt:

"These products are unsafe, untested, and if you see them, do not purchase them and call the police."

That's an enforcement strategy born of necessity. State attorneys general don't have agents in every convenience store. But customers are already there. It's a practical approach to a problem that won't be solved by letters alone.

What Comes Next

The trajectory here is clear. More states will ban these substances. The question is how many people get hurt in the states that haven't acted yet, and whether federal regulators will move decisively enough to make the patchwork unnecessary.

Every week these products remain on shelves, someone walks into a gas station, sees a package promising relief from anxiety or pain, and assumes it's safe because it's legal and sitting next to the protein bars. That assumption is wrong. And in too many states, nothing stops them from making it.

Connecticut decided that was unacceptable. Thirteen other states reached the same conclusion on tianeptine. The rest are still thinking about it.

The shelves aren't going to clear themselves.