Phenibut is a Soviet-era central nervous system depressant sold across the United States as an unregulated powder marketed as a “nootropic.” It is not approved by the FDA for any use, and the FDA has determined it does not meet the statutory definition of a dietary ingredient[2] — so selling it as a supplement is already unlawful, and has been since at least 2019.[3] It is nonetheless sold openly. At the federal level this is an enforcement gap, not a legislative gap. State scheduling closes it at the point of sale.
12.6%
Roughly one in eight phenibut exposures reported to U.S. poison centers during 2009–2019 was life-threatening or caused significant disability. There were 1,320 reported exposures in total, three deaths, and coma in 6.2%.[1]
What this data cannot tell you. These are voluntary calls, not a national count, and 85.0% came from healthcare facilities — so the series largely captures cases already severe enough to reach a hospital, and misses everyone who became dependent without seeking care. The figure is a floor, not a measurement. It is also several years old; no more recent national surveillance series has been published.[1]
Phenibut is an agonist at GABA-B receptors, structurally related to baclofen.[4] It is an effective anxiolytic — a prescription medicine for anxiety in Russia — and that is the mechanism of harm, not a mitigation of it: it works, tolerance develops within one to two weeks of regular use, and stopping after regular use produces a withdrawal syndrome resembling alcohol and benzodiazepine withdrawal, with published cases of agitated delirium and psychosis.[5] It is not detected on standard drug screens, so these presentations are repeatedly misdiagnosed.
A jurisdiction appears here only where the statute itself was read. Secondary sources disagree, and several widely repeated claims did not survive checking.
| Jurisdiction | Standing | Citation |
|---|---|---|
| United States (federal) | Not scheduled | FDA, Phenibut in Dietary Supplements; FDA Constituent Update, April 2019 |
| Alabama | Scheduled | Ala. Code § 20-2-25, as amended by HB2, 2021 Reg. Sess. (enrolled; effective the first day of the third month after approval) |
| Florida | Not scheduled | Fla. Stat. § 893.03 (2024) — full text searched; no phenibut entry |
| Iowa | Not scheduled | Iowa Code §§ 124.204, 124.206, 124.208, 124.210, 124.212 — all five schedules searched; no phenibut entry |
Not listed: Ohio, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, Australia. Each is asserted by secondary sources to have acted. We could not retrieve the primary statutory text, so we publish no status in either direction. Your legislative counsel can settle any of these in a phone call.
Prepared by Poison Phenibut, an independent educational project with no funding, no advertising, no affiliate relationships, and no financial interest in any product, treatment provider, or legislative outcome. Not affiliated with the CDC, FDA, DEA, or SAMHSA. This content has not undergone independent clinical review. Full sourcing, the complete argument, and every citation: poisonphenibut.com/for-legislators · Poison Control 1-800-222-1222.