Health professionals have expressed serious concern over what they describe as public “indifference” to the widespread availability of hexahydrocannabinol (HHC), a synthetic cannabinoid linked to psychotic episodes in teenagers that remains easily accessible in shops across Ireland.
An investigation by the Irish Examiner successfully purchased HHC products—including jelly edibles and flavored vapes—from retailers in towns and villages nationwide, highlighting the substance’s continued availability despite growing medical concerns.
“This is not an emerging trend—it is an established problem that has gone on a shockingly long time with zero action,” said Bobby Smyth, consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist and clinical professor at Trinity College Dublin. “I am gobsmacked as to how indifferent the response to it has been from the powers-that-be.”
Prof. Smyth noted that HHC “is the main substance now in about a quarter of referrals” to adolescent addiction services. The College of Psychiatrists of Ireland raised concerns about the substance a year and a half ago, but regulatory action has been slow to materialize.
Recent incidents highlight the substance’s dangers. Social Democrats Councillor Isobel Towse reported cases in West Cork where a 12-year-old child couldn’t remember his mother’s name after using HHC, while another child required psychiatric hospitalization after vaping the cannabinoid. In Fermoy in 2023, four young people were hospitalized in an incident linked to HHC use.
Colin O’Gara, consultant psychiatrist and head of addiction services at St John of God University Hospital, emphasized that HHC issues extend beyond teenagers: “From testimony from both patients and others, it is not uncommon for dinner parties. I have been told that a non drug-using cohort would have gummies in a middle-aged grouping because they see it as legal and see nothing wrong.”
While legislation is being prepared to include HHC in the Misuse of Drugs Act, confusion persists about its current legal status under previous legislation from 2010, and no clear timeline for implementation has been provided.
Up to one-fifth of teenagers in addiction treatment services are reportedly there because of chemically modified cannabis products found in vapes and edibles, including HHC.