insane hypocrisy from the Federal Death Agency, a prodrug is functionally the exact same thing as the endogenously occuring substance

I agree. I tried picamilon in the past, it's a very benign substance. Never experienced withdrawals or dependence. It's not like it's an exogenous GABA ligand or modulator, either. I'd venture to say that if any GABA actually makes it to the brain, it's just recycled via reuptake into pre/post-synaptic clefts, whereas phenibut and benzodiazepines cause increased binding of existing GABA, and in their absence, can cause dependence when GABA receptors return to their natural binding states.

edit: apparently phenibut directly binds to GABA receptors, which is different than how benzodiazepines work. It also acts like gabapentin.