“My son was good,” Tracy Morrison said as she fought back tears.
A recovering addict, Christopher Harper Montgomery, 29, struggled with depression and anxiety for much of his life, according to his mother.
To deal with these feelings, he turned to tianeptine, or Za-Za as it is often referred to. It is a substance not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration that is available at many convenience stores.
Morrison went to check in on her son, who lived in Fulton, on Feb. 5. What she found when she entered the door was unthinkable.
“He was laying down like he went to take a nap and it was like he went to sleep,” Morrison said during public comments at a Columbus City Council work session held Thursday at City Hall. “I laid down with him and I held him. I scratched his back like he always wanted me to do. But my son is gone, and nobody else (should) go through that.”
Believing he overdosed on the substance, Montgomery’s death set his mother on a path to seeing tianeptine outlawed. Thursday’s work session included the first of two public hearings the city will hold on possibly banning its sale and possession in the city limits.
Morrison pleaded with officials to take action sooner than later.
“You’re not hearing a lot about (the overdoses) because people are ashamed,” she said. “I am not ashamed. There’s never been a moment that I wasn’t proud of my child. And if I don’t speak up and I don’t fight it, who’s going to do it?”
She also added the product is readily available at many stores, and she said this poses a serious risk to people in recovery.
“People in recovery (can) just walk up and say, ‘I’ll try that.’” Morrison said. “Because they don’t have to have a prescription. They don’t show up in a drug test. They can stay in the sober livings they’re in. They can even go get their suboxone (medication to treat opioid addiction) when they’re taking it.”
Both the city and Lowndes County are considering local bans of tianeptine, similar to the one in place for Kratom. Both are also looking to potential legislation that could ban the substance statewide — including House Bill 304 that has passed the House and will be considered by the Senate. The board of supervisors on Wednesday asked for a joint hearing with the city on Tuesday, but the timing did not allow the county to fully follow its guidelines for advertising public hearings.
Council members present Thursday seemed to favor a local ban, but Ward 2 Councilman Joseph Mickens said the problem is bigger than any of them.
“For us here at a local level, it seems like this is way beyond the sheriff and the police chief,” he said. “Call your local representative, whoever that person is. … We need more people on board. I’m not taking anything away from the sheriff or the chief, but we need all the help we can get.”
Ward 3 Councilman Rusty Greene asked if there was perhaps a blanket ordinance the city could pass outlawing any substance not FDA-regulated.
Sheriff Eddie Hawkins said that move would cause far more problems.
“That opens a whole other can of worms,” Hawkins said. “There are products out there that are not FDA approved, that people are not overdosing from. … These kinds of products come along. And I’m sure you’re right that we’re going to see more of these products in the future.”
Some of the surrounding states, such as Alabama and Tennessee, have already banned tianeptine. Montgomery’s grandmother, Karol Harper, argued this makes a ban necessary for the state, but at the very least, the area.
“That opens us up as a supply depot and people can come here to get it,” Harper said. “(They can) buy it and take it back to where they’re from and use it or sell it. So, let’s not let that happen.”
City Attorney Jeff Turnage informed the council he had drafted a resolution for it to consider that would be presented during Tuesday’s meeting. He sent a copy of the city’s proposed ordinance to county officials.
Hawkins said it is important all local ordinances be uniform.
“The Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office cannot enforce town ordinances,” Hawkins said. “The towns cannot enforce a county ordinance. It has to be that entity, that department, that enforces their own ordinance. That’s why it’s so important that we have ordinances in place and we all need to work together and mirror the same ordinance.”
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