Is HHC legal in France?

HHC, or hexahydrocannabinol, is a synthetic cannabinoid, meaning it was created in a laboratory and is not natural. Some people claim it has morphine-like effects, but what is it really? Why are so many people talking about HHC these days? Is it legal in France? We'll try to answer all these questions in this article.

Update 05/04: HHC is now illegal to sell in Austria. Consumption is not prohibited, but CBD shops are no longer allowed to sell or trade it. Some say it will become illegal in France before the end of the year... For alternatives, see the end of this article.

Update 13/04: HHC is now illegal in Finland.

Update 12/06: HHC is officially illegal in France. It has just been placed on the list of narcotics by the ANSM.

HHC, a trendy new molecule

As mentioned above, it's a synthetic cannabinoid that has enjoyed great popularity in the USA for some years now. Consumed in the form of HHC e-liquids or HHC oil across the Atlantic, for its THC-like effects (tetrahydrocannabinol), it appeared in France less than a year ago, directly from Uncle Sam, and sold mainly in the form of HHC hash. Unfortunately, a very large number of CBD shops - the most opportunistic, and often those that are losing ground or trying to make a place for themselves among the big players in this market - have rushed to sell it, even though we have very little information about it.

Let's be honest: apart from its molecular structure, derived from THC, we don't know much about it. The "we" here refers to the scientific community, which doesn't have enough hindsight to give an opinion on HHC. Whether it's its effects on the body, or the possibleaddiction it can provoke, we all remain in a state of absolute vagueness. So why are more and more shops selling it? For some, the lure of profit seems to be a more powerful driving force than the well-being and good health of their customers!

How is HHC created?

Let's take a step back in time. HHC was first created in the 1940s by Roger Adams, a chemist from the USA, following the laboratory modification of a natural cannabinoid, THC. Unlike Delta-9-THC, which contains 4 hydrogen molecules, HHC has 6. The transformation of THC into HHC is therefore the result of a relatively "simple" process called hydrogenation, involving the addition of 2 hydrogen molecules. Some would say that this is a natural cannabinoid, as it is present in seeds in very small quantities, but the HHC sold on the market has indeed been created in the laboratory, making it a synthetic cannabinoid.

What are the effects of HHC and is it a real health risk?

HHC acts as a powerful agonist (activator) of the CB1 receptor of the endocannabinoid system. This means it mimics the reaction of other cannabinoids - notably THC - and produces effects very similar to it, although we have no certainty that it actually acts in correlation with the endocannabinoid system.

Tests on animals have tended to demonstrate that this cannabinoid produces antinociceptive (pain-relieving), anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory (immune-stimulating) effects. Yet, despite its hypothetical therapeutic potential, it is currently classified as a Schedule I drug under US federal law, which does not prevent it from being legal in some states.

As HHC is structurally similar to other stimulant drugs, it presents numerous health risks. These side effects include increased heart rate and blood pressure, anxiety, paranoia, hallucinations and delusions, as well as all the symptoms that can result from these, such as intense dry mouth, dizziness and disorientation. It can also cause agitation and increased aggressiveness. All these adverse effects can lead to serious hospitalization for those at risk.

In 2008, a team of scientists from the University of California - San Francisco (UCSF) published a paper detailing the discovery of HHC. The UCSF team found that HHC was around 1000 times more potent than JWH-018, a well-known synthetic cannabinoid, in terms of binding affinity for the CB1 and CB2 receptor, and very dangerous to health. Here's some spine-chilling news: on October 15, 2011, the coroner of Anderson County, South Carolina, USA, Greg Shore, attributed the death of a South Carolina college basketball player to "drug toxicity and organ failure" caused by JWH-018.

Imagine a cannabinoid whose structure can be likened to Delta-9-THC, but whose effects would be 1000 times more powerful than illegal and deadly synthetic drugs... That's what HHC is: an abomination that has no place on the shelves of CBD stores. What's worse is that some people boast of selling you a supposedly natural product that's close to THC, while taking care to clear their name as much as possible. In other words, "buy, but if there's a problem, we've got nothing to do withit". What hypocrisy! And all this for what? A few euros is a disgrace! This market really needs to be regulated so that all these pseudo-benefactors of legal cannabis shut up shop.

⚠️ Following some feedback from our readers on this article, who are confused by our claims, we would like to make it clear that hexahydrocannabinol has not caused anyone's death. It is not a lethal cannabinoid. We're simply pointing out that it has been compared with another synthetic cannabinoid called JWH-018, which caused the death of a student in the United States. Although the death was attributed to JWH-018, there may be other reasons for this serious side effect, notably an underlying health problem. Our aim is above all to make consumers aware that HHC can be dangerous and entails numerous health risks. We repeat that HHC does not kill, or at least has never killed anyone.

But what do clinical tests actually say about HHC?

Hexahydrocannabinol was originally synthesized as part of an effort to develop new therapeutic agents for the treatment of inflammatory diseases. The UCSF team found that this molecule produced robust anti-inflammatory effects in vitro and in vivo. In mice, HHC was shown to significantly reduce inflammation. Given its powerful anti-inflammatory effects, HHC may be considered promising for the treatment of various diseases such as Crohn's disease, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Unfortunately, its therapeutic potential has not been explored in clinical trials due to its classification as a Schedule 1 drug in the USA Under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), Schedule I drugs are defined as substances with "high potential for abuse" that "have no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States".

In order to conduct clinical trials on HHC, researchers must obtain approval from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The DEA has not yet approved any applications for clinical trials on Schedule I drugs. As a result, the therapeutic potential of HHC remains largely unknown.

What is an HHC flower?

Many people ask us, "Doyou sell HHC flowers?" But what are HHC flowers really? I must warn you, this is a somewhat taboo subject. No grower or manufacturer of this type of product will dare tell you the truth about it. They'll either deny it, or tell you the most beautiful story in the world to justify a chemical method for adding HHC to their flower.

In reality, it's very simple. Take a classic CBD flower, a bottle with spray, pour pureethanol into the bottle, add the HHC extraction, usually accompanied by a natural or synthetic terpene to mask the smell of alcohol, shake the bottle so that everything is well mixed, and spray the flower a few times. Wait a few hours for the alcohol to evaporate, and you've got a beautiful HHC flower ready to be sold or eaten. If your salesman tells you that they've used a revolutionary method to add HHC to their flower, he's kidding you. If your favorite CBD shop claims that its HHC flowers are totally natural, don't even try to understand, just run away!

So, is HHC legal in France or not?

Given the dangers associated with its use, from its psychotropic effects very similar to THC (high, paranoia, anxiety) to its close proximity to all the other synthetic cannabinoids - which can cause very strong dependence and serious reactions leading to death - HHC is illegal in France.

Unfortunately, because of the legal uncertainty surrounding HHC, which is not clearly listed as a narcotic - even if the law is basically quite clear, any substance with psychotropic effects, whether listed in the penal code or not, is illegal - some dishonest shops have rushed to sell it, even going so far as to advertise that they all have cheap HHC, as if it were a competition to intoxicate consumers.

What's more, some consumers have had the unpleasant surprise of testing positive on a saliva test, following their consumption of HHC - such as HHC resin, which is one of the most widespread products - but of course, the sellers of these products have a solution. It's written in very small print on their website, usually on the same page as the product, that they won't be held responsible if the gendarmerie's saliva test proves positive. Now that's reassuring for the future of their business, isn't it?

Good to know: Most saliva tests detect a molecule metabolized by the body from THC, called THC-COOH. It's difficult to know whether HHC consumption triggers the production of this metabolite. Consequently, it's quite possible that people who test positive on a saliva test after consuming hexahydrocannabinol are doing so because of the Delta-9-THC levels present in the flower. One thing is certain: shops prefer to take the lead and clear their name, which clearly shows that they have no knowledge of the product being sold.

In conclusion, despite its interesting therapeutic properties according to certain studies, we recommend that you avoid HHC. We fully understand that this new molecule can be seductive, with the promise of effects very similar to THC, while being supposedly legal, but it is not regulated as it should be, given its dangerousness. These undesirable effects are far too numerous and present to be simply brushed aside by the shops in the hope of increasing their turnover. Frankly, if you have cardiovascular or psychological problems, no matter how serious, stay away from hexahydrocannabinol, and for the rest of us, avoid it as much as possible until further studies have been carried out to find out more. There are other alternatives if you want to be more relaxed than with CBD.

What are the alternatives to HHC?

Most hexahydrocannabinol users actually want to consume a product more potent than CBD - especially former smokers of "real" cannabis - in the hope of weaning themselves off THC while retaining a certain psychoactive high provided by HHC. Others are looking for specific effects, such as sleep-inducing, appetite-stimulating, pain-reducing, anti-depressant and so on. Yet all these effects can be obtained by consuming other cannabinoids. Here's a short list of the effects sought by HHC users and their equivalent in terms of legal cannabinoids:

• CBN: Cannabinol or CBN is a 100% natural cannabinoid with powerful sedative properties. With it, you'll be able to fall asleep with ease.
• CBC: Cannabichromene or CBC is another 100% natural cannabinoid whose benefits are said to be 10 times more powerful than CBD for relaxing and combating all forms of depression. What's more, it's an "amplifier", meaning it boosts the effects of all other cannabinoids tenfold.
• H4CBD / The best alternative to HHC: You've probably never heard of it, but H4CBD, or TH-CBD, is a synthetic cannabinoid in the same way as HHC, but it's fully legal because it's produced from CBD. Current studies have shown it to be 100 times more potent than CBD, with effects similar to those of HHC, but without being psychoactive or dangerous. That's why you can now discover our flowers and resins based on H4CBD.