Cork senator expresses concern about slow pace of proscribing synthetic drug HHC  

The father of a 12-year-old boy who had to be hospitalised after vaping HHC — a synthetic drug with psychoactive ingredients — said that it took his son several days to recover fully from its effects.

The issue was first highlighted by Social Democrats councillor Isobel Towse, who called, during a meeting of Cork County Council, for speedy action to ban the drug, which is described as a semi-synthetic cannabinoid derived from the banned drug, THC.

She referred to two separate instances in which people had to be hospitalised after vaping HHC.

“In one case in Clonakilty, a 12-year-old who had accessed a vape through an older teen, became completely out of it after vaping it, he didn’t know where he was or his mother’s name, and had 24 hours in CUH [Cork University Hospital] of symptoms so severe he was tested for opioid overdose,” the councillor, who represents Skibbereen/West Cork, told her colleagues.

Described

Speaking to The Echo on the condition of anonymity, the father of the boy involved described what happened.

“Someone vaping ended up in our house on a weeknight and I went to bed and the older brother and himself stayed up watching TV and they smoked it.”

He said he noticed a change in his younger son.

“I knew something was up from their behaviour, he was falling behind, he was ghostly, it was hard to get him out of bed — that was unusual,” he said.

“I told the teachers to keep an eye on him: ‘There’s something not right here, if there’s a problem give me a shout’.

“Ten minutes later they rang and said: ‘You’ve got to get him out of here, something’s not right’ and he was nodding off.

“I took my older son aside and asked him: ‘What’s going on here? I could see you whispering’.

“I got it out of him straight away that he’d been smoking something, so I took him to my parents’ house and after one or two hours of him napping, all he wanted to do was to go sleep.

“I took him into CUH — now he was looking, like, you know when you see someone on heroin, nodding off.

“I know how people look when they’re smoking dope — I smoked hash when I was young, I’m 50 now, so I don’t — but this looked like he was on hard drugs.

“My worry was that he could have found some tablets at home, in the medicine chest and he had taken them and he was poisoned.”

Escalated

The situation escalated, and tests were carried out.

“They [emergency department staff] knew that this was more than just smoking, he was drifting in and out, they did toxicology reports, he looked like he was poisoned, he looked like a junkie,” the boy’s father said.

“He was in that way for around 24 hours, they monitored him. We sort of breathed a sigh of relief when we got through the toxicology report that it was HHC, because we knew he was just stoned off his head and that it was going to wear off — that took a couple of hours and we were very on edge, like, would we have to pump his stomach, did he accidentally overdose on paracetamol or something?

“He was in and out of sleep, he couldn’t keep his eyes open for around 24 hours.

“In the hospital they said they’re getting a lot of people in all the time, having attacks, paranoia, feeling sick from the HHC, and occasionally they get someone in who’s a little bit younger.”

He expressed fear that should HHC be banned, it wouldn’t be long before it was replaced.

“The broader picture is that while it’s inevitable that HHC gets banned, I presume the manufacturers have HBC or H2C or five replacement products lined up that will have to be outlawed again.”

Response

In a response from the Department of Health regarding the call to ban HHC, a spokesperson said: “Hexahydrocannabinol [HHC] is a psychoactive synthetic cannabinoid, with effects similar to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive cannabinoid in cannabis.

“While HHC is not currently a controlled drug under the Misuse of Drugs legislative framework, under Section 3 of the Criminal Justice (Psychoactive Substances) Act 2010, a person who sells a psychoactive substance knowing or being reckless as to whether that substance is being acquired or supplied for human consumption shall be guilty of an offence.

“While a person who imports or exports a psychoactive substance knowing or being reckless as to whether that substance is being acquired or supplied for human consumption shall be guilty of an offence.

“The Department of Health, together with the Office of Parliamentary Counsel, have been drafting the necessary legislation to add HHC to Schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977. It is expected that this will be completed shortly.”

Sinn Féin senator Nicole Ryan, who founded Alex’s Adventure, a counselling service which tours schools to advise of the dangers of drugs such as HHC and other synthetic drugs, said she had added HHC to the drugs she was talking about in schools last year. Ms Ryan’s brother, Alex, died after he took a synthetic drug at a party in 2016.

Concern

The Cork-based senator expressed concern about the slow pace of proscribing HHC and similar drugs.

“The problem is in Ireland, there is currently a major regulatory gap when it comes to vape shop products that contain psychoactive substances like HHC or synthetic THC derivatives,” Ms Ryan said.

“These products can be legally sold because they haven’t yet been scheduled under the Misuse of Drugs Acts, and they often fall outside the scope of both tobacco and medicinal product regulations.”

She said the Government could get ahead of the issue if a number of steps were taken. She spelled them out as follows:

• Introduce a licensing system for all vape shop products containing psychoactive or cannabinoid-derived ingredients. Similar to the system in place for controlled medications, this would restrict sales to licensed premises — potentially limiting them to only regulated outlets;

• Amend the Misuse of Drugs Act to allow for “group-based” or “generic” scheduling of cannabinoid analogues, rather than chasing each new compound individually (as has been the case with substances such as spice, HHC, HHC-O, HHC-P, THC-P, etc). This would future-proof legislation against emerging derivatives;
• Implement mandatory labelling and age restrictions for all vape products, including psychoactive variants — with proper enforcement and penalties for non-compliance;

• Actually start testing these products. This would give valuable statistics on what is in these vapes and also identify the liquids and what they are.

Ms Ryan added: “Restricting access to these substances through controlled licensing — and potentially limiting them to only regulated outlets — would be a strong deterrent and create a layer of oversight that’s currently missing.

“Without such regulation, young people remain exposed to untested, unverified, and potentially dangerous products being sold over the counter.”

David Lane, head of drugs and alcohol services for the HSE in the South West, said more people were coming to hospital emergency departments, the mental health services, and addiction services because of the ill-effects of HHC and other psychoactive substances.

These included its potency, which was unknown, and long-term effects it might have on the health of young people.

“This is an ongoing struggle that we’re having and this case that was highlighted — it is part of the problem we face in Ireland, and in many other parts of the world, in terms of synthetic drugs,” he said.