HHC: The drug sold on Irish main streets that’s sending teens to hospital

Synthetic cannabis HHC is being sold in Irish shops despite expert warnings of addiction, psychosis, and teen hospitalisations

St John of God University Hospital consultant psychiatrist Colin O’Gara with products containing HHC that under-18s can readily buy in vape shops. Prof O’Gara says the psychoactive chemical should be scheduled under the Misuse of Drugs Act. Picture: Moya Nolan

In glass cabinets in shops on main streets of towns the length and breadth of the country sit a bewildering range of flavoured vapes and jellies, many laced with a substance suspected of causing teens to suffer serious health emergencies.

One shop in the East Cork town of Midleton has a flashing neon sign in the window advertising the sale of hexahydrocannabinol, known as HHC, within. Other shops in other towns and villages are less overt with their advertisements.