'Gas Station Heroin' Sold As 'Happiness In A Bottle' Killed Toms River Man: Lawsuit

TOMS RIVER, NJ – The drink was marketed as “Happiness in a Bottle,” but a Toms River woman says the beverage, “Neptune’s Fix,” killed her son after he drank it in December, in a wrongful death lawsuit filed Sept. 5.

June Cornier of Toms River has filed suit against Neptune Resources, the Missouri company that made the beverage; Super Chill CBD Products, a New York business that distributed the beverage, and Hometown Market in Point Pleasant, where her son Matthew J. Cornier purchased the drink, according to the lawsuit filed in Middlesex County.

Matthew Cornier, 32, died Dec. 6. 2023, after drinking the beverage, "Neptune's Fix Elixer." The Ocean County Medical Examiner ruled his death was caused by a drug touted in the drink, tianeptine, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit alleges Neptune Resources and Super Chill CBD Products knew the product, Neptune’s Fix Elixer, was dangerous when it was distributed to in New Jersey for consumption.

According to the lawsuit, the drink contained tianeptine, a drug that is an antidepressant used in some Latin American, Asian, and European countries but "has never been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for medical use," an NPR report said.

Tianeptine is referred to as “gas station heroin” because it is sold in gas stations and convenience stores and mimics opioids, authorities said. It does not contain heroin, but works "in a way that's similar to heroin," the NPR report said. "Another similarity? People who abuse tianeptine report that it has left them wrestling with addiction."

It's sold in the United States as a nootropic, a substance promising to enhance users' mood and cognitive function, NPR reported.

The FDA has been warning about the dangers of the drug since 2022, and the New Jersey Department of Heath warned about the drug in an alert in 2023 regarding a spike in calls to the state’s poison control hotline about people who had taken the drug. There were 20 cases reported to poison control from June to November 2023, the health department said.

“It is inaccurately marketed as a safer alternative to opioids and can have opioid-like effects. The FDA has warned that manufacturers of tianeptine are making inaccurate and unproven claims that use of tianeptine can improve brain function, treat anxiety, depression, pain, opioid use disorder, and other health ailments,” the state health department said.

Even as alarms were being sounded across the country about tianeptine in 2023, Neptune Resources began marketing Neptune’s Fix Elixer in New Jersey in October 2023.

Matthew Cornier purchased the Neptune’s Fix on Dec. 6, 2023, drank it and “suffered a seizure, cerebral anoxia, acute heart failure, and/or cardiac arrythmia, and died,” the lawsuit says. The Ocean County Medical Examiner concluded following an autopsy that his death was caused by an adverse effect of tianeptine with THC, it says.

Neptune Resources recalled the drinks in January 2024, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit alleges negligence on the part of the companies for making the drink, distributing it and selling it even as federal and state authorities were warning about its dangers. It seeks unspecified damages.

Read more about tianeptine at the National Library of Medicine.