Every week, Igor buys CBD in the form of herb at his tobacco shop near Lyon. The substance, known for its calming effects, is not psychotropic and is therefore legal in France. So many reasons which pushed the thirty-year-old, several years ago, to prefer it to cannabis, which is illegal and contains around a hundred cannabinoids, including THC (the main psychoactive molecule of this plant). But at the beginning of April, he had an unpleasant surprise. “I smoked two joints in the evening. The effects, intense throughout the night, prevented me from sleeping. Then I stayed in bed for two days in a row without being able to get up. The following five days, I was stoned ‘ constantly, with attacks of paranoia and anxiety while I had to take care of my daughters, go to work, drive. It was horrible, endless.
If he did not need hospitalization, it is because he has a history of being a heavy cannabis smoker and is used to the adverse effects of THC, he assures. Still, the experience made him want to buy CBD. But it didn’t stop him from carrying out his little investigation. It turns out that his tobacco shop was the victim of a labeling error by his supplier, who replaced around fifteen batches of CBD with THCP, a synthetic molecule sold legally, at least until now.
Pierre, who consumes around 1 gram of cannabis every day, deliberately purchased 3 grams of H4CBD in a tobacco shop six months ago. Again, the product was presented to him in the form of a perfectly legal head of weed. But he too was shocked by the substance’s backlash. “The last time I smoked it, it knocked me out for four days, with an effect close to classic cannabis at the time, then feeling like I had the flu the next day, with aches and a craving. to stay in bed all day,” he warns. If he had initially found these products interesting because they allowed him to escape illegality, he now stays away from them. “The problem is that we don’t know what we’re smoking,” he points out. “As for the effects, it’s nonsense, one wonders if the producers know what ‘they market!’
New synthetic drugs, from the dark web to the tobacco shop
The testimonies of Igor and Pierre follow many others, reported in the media or received by poison control centers throughout the country. Several cases of hospitalization have even been reported. Enough to provoke the reaction of the French Medicines Agency (ANSM), which placed THCP and H4CBD on the list of narcotics, alongside around ten other molecules that can also be purchased in tobacco shops, in CBD Shops (CBD stores) or on the Internet: H2CBD, as well as the HHC family (HHCO HHCP, HHCPO, THCP and THCA) and other cannabinoid derivatives (5F-Cumyl-Pegaclone, Cumyl-CH-Megaclone, BZO-Hexoxizid, etc.) “This comes down to prohibit sales”, confirms a representative of the ANSM. All these products will therefore become illegal from June 3, regardless of the forms of consumption: weed, resin, candies or e-liquids.
The phenomenon is far from recent. For years, “New synthetic products”, like‘French Observatory for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT) calls them, flooding the drug market. At the beginning, these were mainly molecules derived from illegal narcotics such as MDMA (ecstasy), LSD or ketamine, called 4-FMA, 6-MAM, 4-CMC, etc. The general public discovered one of them, 3MMC, when actor Pierre Palmade admitted to having consumed it before his serious road accident. The principle remains the same as with CBD or THC derivatives. The producers take the molecules and add one or more atoms, then sprinkle them on various supports: grass, resin, sugar tablets, etc.
Although they are derived from illegal drugs, these products, most often manufactured in China, are authorized for sale, provided they are not intended for human consumption. This is why they are often marketed under the name of bath salts or incense, even if this does not mislead informed consumers. A strategy aimed at taking advantage of a gray area of the law, which provides special authorizations for products linked to human consumption, but which only prohibits other uses if there is suspicion of danger to health.
The novelty here lies in the fact that these drug derivatives have until now remained confined to a few obscure websites, dark web resellers, or even drug dealers. But synthetic CBD derivatives are found directly in tobacco shops and CBD Shops. Indeed, as CBD is authorized for consumption, its derivatives escape, for the moment, an automatic ban and even benefit from authorization in principle. CBD would therefore act like a Trojan horse for its derivatives, whose effects are however much closer to THC or other psychotropic drugs.
One forbidden, ten found
A common point between all these substances is that each time one of them is banned, new ones appear a few weeks later. Because these molecules have the particularity of being able to be modified almost infinitely. “It’s always the same thing: we identify one, it is banned, then the producers develop another. It’s endless,” laments Nicolas Simon, professor of medicine, addictologist and head of department of the poison control center and toxicovigilance of Marseille (AP-HM) A real one. headache for the French authorities and European, even if they sometimes try to target entire families, like the ban on all HHC by the ANSM.
If the French agency’s decision is beneficial, it is therefore a safe bet that it will not prevent the arrival of new products derived from cannabinoids. With the risk that there will be even less perspective on their medium and long term effects. “I have the impression that every time a product is banned, a new, even stronger one appears. The sellers know that their merchandise will eventually be banned. They are probably embarking on a ‘race with the strongest effect’ to attract the customer”, estimates Pierre.
Unknown medium and long term effects
However, the phenomenon is cause for concern, because many unknowns remain about these synthetic drugs. The first being how these products are made. Sometimes presented as natural, the molecules that we find today in tobacco shops are in reality derivatives of cannabinoids present naturally in the cannabis plant, but chemically transformed. H2CBD and H4CBD are, for example, products derived from cannabidiol (CBD). “H2CBD and H4CBD are obtained by chemical transformation, in this case by hydrogenation of CBD, that is to say the addition of two or four hydrogen atoms to a CBD molecule,” explains Professor Pier -Vincenzo Piazza, cannabis specialist and founder of Aelis Farma, a biotechnology company specializing in addiction. As for the HHC family, these are cannabinoid derivatives formed from a nucleus called benzochromene, indicates the ANSM. “Producers manufacture these molecules in laboratories, then they sprinkle them on resins or CBD flowers, mix them with e-liquids or inject them into candies,” explains Professor Nicolas Simon.
The question of medium and long term consequences for health is not more obvious. “Each molecule has its own effect, its own toxicity and we generally do not have the time to study them and determine their dangerousness, unlike traditional drugs with which we know what to expect,” continues Professor. Simon. “We know a little about 4HCBD, because it has been on the market for several years. It has a mode of action similar to that of THC, because it acts on the same receptor in the brain (CB1) but in a more effective way, which could explain the effects prolonged over several days, specifies Professor Pier-Vincenzo Piazza As for the other molecules, if they present a euphoric or psychotropic action, this means that they very probably act on the CB1 receptor and therefore produce comparable effects. THC.” Notably, CBD itself does not act on the famous CB1 receptor, which is why it does not produce a psychotropic effect. The so-called CBD derivatives are therefore, in their action, much closer to THC.
“The demand for these products is very strong”
As for who makes these molecules, the question seems tricky. “One thing is certain, the chemical intervention for H2 and H4CBD is not complex”, indicates Professor Pier-Vincenzo Piazza. Igor, for his part, was able to communicate with the Lyon supplier who reversed the batches of CBD and THCP. “He told me that he imported almost all his products from Switzerland, which would be the main exporter for France, and a little from the Netherlands too,” he recalls. The producer also assured him that THCP was specially created with the aim of producing effects over several days and that, although he was “not very favorable to the sale of these products”, the demand from French consumers would be such that tobacco companies would refuse to work with him if he only offered CBD. It is difficult, again, to think that tobacconists will refuse to market future replacement derivatives.
But should we still give up? “CBD should not be authorized for over-the-counter sales,” argues Professor Piazza. “As a medicine, it produces interesting results, but beneficial effects mean undesirable effects. How can we leave it on sale, when ‘there is also no control of the quantity purchased by consumers?’ According to the specialist, there is an urgent need to ban any form of marketing of non-pure CBD, to which various derivatives would be added, and to systematically apply regular quality controls to all imported products.
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