Emory and Kari Womack each began using drugs at age 13.
“He was an opioid user and I was a stimulant user, but he preferred downers more than uppers and I preferred uppers more than downers,” Kari Womack said.
“In 2015, I experienced an overdose and I quit using drugs immediately and I have since then been sober,” she added.
Emory found sobriety in 2021.
But he could not stay sober. He found a legal substance that led to his death on June 29 of this year.
He was 34.
Emory and Kari would have celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary in October.
Nine days after Emory died, a bill was signed by Gov. Roy Cooper adding tianeptine to the controlled substances list. It is the ingredient found in bottles of supplements with names such as Neptune’s Fix, Pegasus, Zaza, Purple Magic and others, some of which were found at the scene of his death.
Kari is still awaiting an autopsy report to determine how much was in her husband’s system.
“They actually had to send his stuff out of North Carolina because they cannot test for tieneptine here,” she said.
She says eight or nine bottles were found near her husband.
“I know he didn’t take those eight or nine bottles all at once. I know my husband,” she said.
“I don’t think my husband really knew the dangers of taking such a substance,” she added. “It’s used for anxiety and I want to think because he had major anxiety that’s what he was trying to use it for.”
One brand listed a serving size of 700 mg, but each brand has different ingredients. She said she has learned a recommended dose of tianeptine is 2.5 mg.
“There is 700 mg of different things in this bottle and you’re really not sure of how much tianeptine is in there,” she said.
Emory was in Harnett County visiting his father when he died, Kari said.
“I did see him that Thursday and Friday and he was very calm,” she said. “But apparently that Saturday he started displaying erratic behavior.
“His dad said he was displaying erratic behaviors, couldn’t sit down for more than five minutes,” she added. “He actually had one of our dogs there and when I got him back he was severely bloated, like someone had been feeding him something that he shouldn’t. He was extremely matted in the back and my husband always took care of our dogs. That was his pride and joy, was our dogs. So, seeing that, my husband was not in his right mind.”
Kari said she did not know her husband was abusing the substance.
“I did not know because this stuff is literally sold as a dietary supplement in tobacco stores,” she said. “I didn’t really think twice about that. I know that he was in the process of having some surgeries and stuff like that.”
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration has not approved tianeptine for medical use.
“Despite that, some companies are illegally marketing and selling products containing tianeptine to consumers,” the FDA’s website warns. “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.”
“In the U.S., reports of severe side effects involving tianeptine are increasing,” the warning continued. “Poison control center cases involving tianeptine exposure have increased nationwide, from 11 total cases between 2000 and 2013 to 151 cases in 2020 alone.”
Malisha Ross, regional director of community operations (Stanly, Cabarrus, Union) with Partners Health Management, said tianeptine “is approved to treat depression and anxiety in some other countries, while others have restricted how tianeptine is prescribed or dispensed or revised the drug label to warn of possible addiction.”
Ross gave an explanation of how tianeptine works.
“Unlike the average antidepressant, tianeptine has opioid agonist properties, meaning they work on opioid receptors in the brain,” Ross said. “By doing so, it helps to increase endorphins like serotonin and reduce depression symptoms. They are manufactured to mimic the effects of more well-known controlled substances such as marijuana and opioids and can be found in dietary supplements as well as cognitive function enhancers. People may abuse tianeptine products because of their opioid-like effects and claims to improve reasoning, treat depression, and anxiety. Severe adverse health effects, including respiratory depression, severe sedation, and death, have occurred from the misuse of tianeptine.”
Sgt. Trent Middlebrook, a detective with the Stanly County Sheriff’s Office, said “considering the accessibility and lower cost of fentanyl, there is uncertainty surrounding the extent to which tianeptine may gain prevalence. The price of tianeptine is typically in the range of $30 to $40 per bottle.”
Middlebrook said the “North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner reports a low incidence of tianeptine-related deaths, typically one or two per year.”
Though a ban is coming, substances with tianeptine included are still available in some shops in Stanly County and across the state. The ban does not become active until Dec. 1.
Since her husband’s death, Kari has been on a mission to educate others about the dangers of tianeptine.
“I’m really worried about the kids that go in these stores to buy vape stuff and then want to experiment with other things and not truly know the dangers of what you’re getting a hold of,” she said. “Especially in rural counties like Stanly County, we’ve got a lot of homeless population, we’ve got a lot of kids that go into these stores and you can pick up something there that can kill you.”
Like Malisha Ross, Valerian Growcock, block grant assistant manager (Stanly, Cabarrus, Union) for Center for Prevention Services, is a member of Stanly County Project Lazarus.
Project Lazarus includes public health, health care, law enforcement and mental health personnel, as well as concerned citizens, who work to fight drug use.
Growcock said members “plan to conduct a two-part series of environmental scans to assess the presence of tianeptine at retailers in the county.”
“The first round of scans, to be conducted in September, will include all gas stations, convenience stores and tobacco and vape stores to determine which retailers currently have tianeptine products on their shelves,” Growcock said. “Retailers that do sell tianeptine will receive education on HB250, the law signed earlier this summer that categorizes tianeptine as a Schedule II substance and bans retail sales throughout North Carolina, and will be advised to remove these products from their shelves before the ban takes effect on Dec. 1.
The group will conduct another round of scans after the ban goes into effect to see if the stores that were selling tianeptine have removed the products.

B.J. Drye is general manager/editor of The Stanly News & Press. Call 704-982-2123.