“Sometimes you feel there are people looking at you. You think people are saying things about you. You’d hear people talking about you by name – but it is not actually your name.”
That’s how 13-year-old Conor describes his reaction to hexahydrocannabinol (HHC), a semi-synthetic cannabis substitute which the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland says is causing severe psychosis in some young men.
Around the time he started post-primary school in autumn 2023, a transition that he found very difficult, Conor (a pseudonym to protect his identity) started vaping HHC. Chemically similar to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in cannabis, it first emerged in Ireland in 2022.
“Everyone was using it and I just decided to try it,” said Conor.
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Describing it as “highly addictive”, he said he used it every day for five or six months. Several of his friends were using it too. Some still are.
He said they’d pool their resources to buy the HHC vapes, which he bought “in corner shops” and other outlets.
They cost about €40 or €25, depending on the size. Tall for his age, Conor said he was rarely asked for ID and he says most young people his age buy nicotine vapes without any bother, even though it is illegal to sell them to under-18s.
He says the youngest person he has seen taking HHC is 12. “I know girls who take it but it is mostly boys. I have seen people in their 40s use it. It is very common. I know a lot of people using it.”
“We started to notice a difference in him, mood swings, being aggressive, not towards anyone in particular but with himself, getting extremely angry and upset. We did not know what to do,” said Conor’s mother.
Both mother and son agreed to be interviewed to highlight the dangers of HHC, which is freely available to buy in Ireland in shops and online, despite the fact that the College of Psychiatrists has warned that it is an issue in more than 20 per cent of referrals to youth addiction services.
The teenager’s mother said he suddenly seemed to have a personality change and she was terrified by the “quite dark thoughts” he was having. “I didn’t see highs but the lows were very low. He’d be crying and really upset and saying, ‘I don’t know why I am upset’, also ‘I don’t think I want to be here any more’.”
Conor himself said he experienced paranoia and other side effects. “I was angry. I had very high mood swings. My mood would change very quickly.”
Describing the experience as frightening, he said “I’d hear things”. Asked to explain further, he said he heard voices.
Having been referred to YoDA, (the HSE’s Youth Drug and Alcohol Service), he said counselling has helped a lot and he is now off the drug but still taking cannabis, which he was on before he tried HHC.
Conor’s mother said she used to be “quite judgey” when she heard of young people on drugs but now realises how accessible they are. Her biggest fear is the unknown long-term impact of HHC on the mental health of young people.
“I am sitting outside my house talking to you and I am looking across at my neighbour’s house and her son died by suicide and he was only 21″, she said. “I know another young person who drugs got hold of, and he died by suicide. Even people who come from lovely homes and have lovely parents are affected.”
She says “a massive worry” is the long-term effect of HHC on her son “especially at this time in his life with puberty and when he’s developing his personality and his social skills”.
Pleading with the Government to ensure there are legal sanctions for those who sell the drug to young people, she said she had never been one to think, for example, that drug addicts should be imprisoned.
“But this seems to be a free-for-all. There does not seem to be any regulation around it.
“But we know mental health is such an issue with young males in Ireland. And we know how high the suicide rate is in Ireland.”
She believes many parents don’t know about HHC and may assume their children are on cannabis if they observe symptoms.
As well as paranoia and withdrawal from the family, who had always been close, there were physical changes with Conor.
“He vomited a few times when he came home. He was quite spaced out. He looked awful, grey and sweaty and complaining of headaches.”
Another mother whose 16-year-old son has also been recently vaping HHC said: “It only took a few puffs to transform him into something completely zombie-like.”
She said that after taking the drug, he came home in a state of collapse.
“He came in one night and he was stoned from a vape. He could not walk, he could not stand, his eyes were rolling in his head. He could not speak,” she said.
This mother said she put the teenager to bed, checked on him every hour to make sure he was still breathing, and that he slept for 24 hours.
Unknown to her, he had a vape containing HHC hidden in his room and he emerged from it in a similar state of collapse.
One of the most worrying aspects for her is that the boy has previously attended counselling with YoDA having developed problems with alcohol and prescription tablets at the age of 14.
On one occasion she was warned by a counsellor that her son might be having suicidal thoughts and she worries now that the effects of HHC are so little known.
The mother explained that her son has low self-esteem and she has been seeking an assessment for him for a few years to see if he is neurodivergent or on the autism spectrum.
“To get an appointment even privately is impossible. I must have rang six or eight places last year. They could not even put me on a waiting list.”
The woman said it was heartbreaking that the son wanted to be tested and had told her: “At least I’d know that I am slightly different and there is a reason for it.” She suspects the failure to get a diagnosis made her son more predisposed to drugs and alcohol.
He told her he had bought the vape for €30.
She too wants to Government to address the HHC issue as a matter of urgency.
Prof Bobby Smyth, a consultant in child and adolescent psychiatry, said psychiatrists around the country have “all lost patience with the lack of action” by Government.
Prof Smyth, who has links with addiction services for young people throughout the west and midlands, said HHC is an issue all over the country. He said its prevalence was “incredible” given that it’s so new.
Banning the substance under the Misuse of Drugs Act is not the answer, he believes, as it would be replaced by other similar drugs. Dealing with it through existing legislation, the Criminal Justice (Psychoactive Substances) Act 2010, which makes it a criminal offence to sell any psychoactive drug is, he says, a better option.
“It is a criminal offence to sell psychoactive drugs. But for reasons I do not understand they are choosing not to enforce that legislation,” said the psychiatrist.
Prof Smyth says the normalisation of vapes among both teenage boys and girls, has facilitated progression to HHC.
The mother of the 16-year-old says she sleeps now with one ear open. “He has his own room but he has to leave his door open at night. It’s partly because I want to hear him breathing. It is exhausting.”
Prof Smyth said people need to understand that just because something is sold in a shop, does not mean it has been tested or evaluated.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice said that while HHC is not currently controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act, section 3 of the Criminal Justice (Psychoactive Substances) Act 2010 provides that a person who sells a psychoactive substance knowing or being reckless as to whether that substance is being acquired or supplied for human consumption, is guilty of an offence.
He added: “To tackle the emergence of these new types of drugs, An Garda Síochána contributes to the Early Warning and Emerging Trends Committee convened under Ireland’s National Drugs Strategy, which develops systems to monitor changing drug trends in line with the EU Early Warning System.”
The HSE Drugs and Alcohol Helpline can be reached any time by email at helpline@hse.ie or by phoning 1800 459 459 on weekdays.
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