For several months, it has become one of the star products of these shops specializing in the sale of CBD, this legal cannabis whose level of THC - the psychoactive molecule of cannabis - is almost zero. Since May 2022, this new product, hexahydrocannabinol, HHC, has been snapping up in French stores.
This substance is perfectly legal, as Ouest-France points out. What worries more and more observers are the effects that HHC can have, more or less similar to those of cannabis, which is banned in France.
HHC can be sold for up to 13 euros per gram, in different forms: flowers, resins, candies. For many vendors, this new substance is a godsend. And for good reason, the market is very competitive with a number of stores in France which has quadrupled between 2019 and 2021.
In total, at the beginning of 2021, France had between 400 and 500 shops specializing in CBD. For sellers, HHC can also be a fallback product. Indeed, for months the industry was on the brink of bankruptcy following the government's decision to ban the sale of CBD flowers and leaves. A decree to this effect was finally challenged by the Council of State.
According to some sellers, interviewed by Ouest-France, this HHC is particularly popular with consumers in the "cannabis withdrawal phase and who did not find themselves in CBD because it was not strong enough".
Unlike CBD, there is nothing natural about HHC. It was designed in the laboratory by an American chemist – Roger Adams – in the mid-1940s. HHC is obtained from THC – the psychoactive molecule contained in cannabis – to which hydrogen atoms are added. As a result, hexahydrocannabinol could thus have effects on mood, sensations or perception of things... like pure cannabis.
A hypothesis confirmed by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction. According to the European institution, "HHC shares the pharmacological mechanism of action with the THC structure," she wrote in a report published on April 17.
An opinion based on several studies carried out on animals and in vitro. Difficult, in this case, to imagine that the side effects of THC are not the same for HHC, the two substances having several physicochemical properties in common. For the moment, no large-scale scientific study has managed to shed light on the precise effects of HHC on health.
Why is HHC available over the counter? In reality, sellers – physical or online – take advantage of legal uncertainty. At European level, no legislation exists to regulate the sale, possession and consumption of HHC. In France, for the moment, it is the case law on hemp derivatives that still applies.
Several European countries have already banned what they consider a drug, such as Finland or Austria. On the side of France, the LR deputy for Oise Victor Habert-Dassault questioned the Ministry of Health on this question. According to our colleagues from TF1, the Directorate General of Health is currently considering classifying HHC as a narcotic.
