Tianeptine sodium almost feels like a different drug than tianeptine sulfate. Fast and hard hitting, compared to a slow burn with the sulfate.
Much of a drugs abuse potential relates to the time it takes for it to reach peak concentrations in the blood after consumption. Tianeptine sodium is much faster in this regard. You can still get opioid-like effects of sulfate, but you have to take alot.
Only recently did I come across tianeptine being sold in a smoke shop. I had never seen it around here so i bought a couple types out of curiosity (all my tianeptine use in the past has been with with pure powder tianeptine).
Ive been using kratom lately so my tolerance is elevated, but I found the smoke shop stuff to be weak. I tried Zaza, Tata and something else (Pegasus?).
I found them all to be weak. Only one said how much tianeptine was in it (i think 72mg per capsule). It definitely didn't feel like 72mg per capsule. I'd say 30mg per capsule, at most. I emptied the contents and tasted that it did have tianeptine sodium in it, but not 70mg worth.
I consumed an entire bottle of the "Tata", which contain 15 pills (they all contain 15 for whatever reason), which based on the labeling should be a gram of tianeptine (sodium). Felt like 300-350mg maybe. Consuming 2 bottles got me pretty toasty, but definitely not worth the cost (when that much tianeptine sodium would cost me 1/30th of the price, maybe less).
If you go on quiting tianeptine subreddits, addicts are spending huge sums on 5 bottle a day habits, when they could buy that much tianeptine for pennies on the dollar in the form of pure powder.