'Silent assassin' vaping drug ban not enough to stop other substances, expert warns

 While both the Department of Justice and the Department of Health say hexahydrocannabinol is currently covered by legislation on psychoactive substances, Mr Keenan has welcomed plans to include it in a list of prohibited substance through the Misuse of Drugs Act. File Picture: Eddie O'Hare

Plans to prohibit a vaping drug branded a "silent assassin" will not be enough to prevent other equally dangerous substances emerging in its place, a HSE addiction expert has warned.

Moves are in place to include hexahydrocannabinol (HHC) on the list of controlled drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Act, according to the Department of Health. A semi-synthetic version of a natural cannabinoid found in cannabis, hexahydrocannabinol can be used in vapes or in jelly edibles.

Concerns have been raised about the drug's impact on young people's mental health, including by minister of state Christopher O’Sullivan who labelled hexahydrocannabinol a "silent assassin" in the Dáil last year.

Eamon Keenan, a professor with the HSE’s addiction services, said that the sale of hexahydrocannabinol in vape shops is worrying because the drug is “driving presentations to addiction centres but also to mental health services”.

Providers of mental health services are now being advised to ask young people presenting with symptoms of psychosis if they have recently used hexahydrocannabinol, according to Mr Keenan.

While both the Department of Justice and the Department of Health say hexahydrocannabinol is currently covered by legislation on psychoactive substances, Mr Keenan has welcomed plans to include it in a list of prohibited substance through the Misuse of Drugs Act. 

“I think what we are learning from Europe is that there are new drugs coming out all the time, and we need to be able to use provisions like the Psychoactive Substances Act to act quickly and get these substances banned quickly — because they are causing mental health problems to young people.” 

'Agile' response

If the drug is prohibited through the Misuse of Drugs Act, it can be taken off the shelves, but Prof Keenan said what is really needed is to "have is a system which is able to respond in an agile manner to any of these new substances that are arriving and that we see causing harm.” 

The drug emerged in Ireland in the last quarter of 2023, and Mr Keenan is hoping that figures will be available in the coming weeks which will give a clearer picture of the scale of its use here.

He said anxiety and low-level depression rank behind psychosis among the impacts affecting young people using hexahydrocannabinol.

Junior minister Christopher O’Sullivan also welcomes the plan to address the drug through the Misuse of Drugs Act, but acknowledges that action on tackling the issue “has been too slow”.

“We need to address it before lives are ruined," he told the Irish Examiner.  

An Garda Síochána says that a “number of investigations into the sale or supply of HHC are ongoing”.

In November 2023, the hospitalisation of four teenagers after vaping in a Cork town was linked to hexahydrocannabinol.