SAN DIEGO — It's called Tianeptine, or "gas station heroin," it's a dangerous synthetic drug that mimics an opioid and is available in smoke shops, convenience stores, and online.
While in a legal grey area here in California, some other states have already taken steps to ban it.
One person who knows the potentially fatal consequences of Tianeptine is Kari Womack, who is now dedicating her life to warning others about its dangers.
Just days after their ninth anniversary, her husband Emory, who had battled addiction throughout his life, bought Tianeptine at a local smoke shop and overdosed.
"I was in shock," Womack told CBS 8.
"He was a good person, he really was," said Kari Womack, who never imagined that - at age 31 - she would become a widow.
"He had a good heart," she added. "Somebody with a really amazing heart."
"I don't think they understand what they're selling people," Womack said.
Sold under names like Za Za Red, Pegasus and Tiana, Tianeptine sells for about $30 a vial and mimics the effects of opioids. It is not approved or regulated by the FDA.
Tianeptine is often illegally marketed as a dietary supplement, claiming to improve brain function.
"Sometimes it's labeled as 'not for human use,' and that's how they get around a lot of the regulations," said Dr. Daniel Lasoff, an emergency medicine physician at UC San Diego who has studied Tianeptine.
He said it's often used for pain relief or a quick euphoric high, similar to heroin or Oxycodone.
"One of the other things we've seen it used for is people use it to self-medicate to try to get off of other opioids like Fentanyl," Dr. Lasoff told CBS 8.
Because the FDA does not regulate it, Dr. Lasoff said it's impossible to know how much Tianeptine you take or whether other drugs may be mixed.
"We don't know if Fentanyl makes it into Tianeptine; we don't know if methamphetamine makes it in there because these aren't regulated, FDA-approved labs," he added.
According to America's Poison Control Centers, only four cases of tianeptine exposure were reported nationwide in 2013.
That number has now skyrocketed to 391 cases last year alone.
"It was actually more addictive for some people than what we've seen with Fentanyl," said Dr Akilah Weber, a state assembly member representing the 79th district here in San Diego.
Earlier this year, Weber proposed legislation that would have banned the sale of Tianeptine products in California
It has already been banned in several states, including Michigan, Indiana and Florida.
"They were seeing large numbers of their residents dying and getting significantly sick from this," Dr. Weber told CBS 8. "What people just assumed to be 'safe,' you can buy it at a gas station."
That bill was later withdrawn after the FDA issued a strong statement against the sale of Tianeptine, putting suppliers and vendors on notice of its dangers.
"They explicitly stated that there was no medical use for it," Weber said.
In response, one manufacturer, Neptune's Fix, voluntarily recalled their products.
"Its warning is strong enough, so I think what we need is more enforcement and education on the federal and local levels," Dr. Weber added.
Still, she said has not ruled out re-introducing legislation if necessary.
"We are watching to see if it's something we need to take action on," she added.
Dr. Lasoff said he would like to see more regulatory action on the federal level.
"I don't see a purpose for it," he added. "I see a danger for it. And for that reason, I don't see why people should use it, and it probably should be regulated for those reasons."
For Kari Womack, who's now working to educate others about the dangers of Tianeptine, the FDA's current warning is not enough.
"It's still being sold, it is still showing up, and it's still killing people," she said. Until you take it off the shelves, that warning means nothing. My husband told me about that warning and didn't take it seriously either."
Earlier this year, federal legislation in both the House and Senate was proposed to ban Tianeptine nationwide: legislation that is still working its way through Congress.