HHC banned in France: the 2022-2026 timeline

HHC belongs to the THC family: one of its double bonds has been saturated with hydrogen. Some cannabis strains contain traces of it, according to the 2024 critical review by the World Health Organization (WHO), but the HHC on the market comes out of a laboratory.

"Hexahydro" means that the molecule carries six more hydrogen atoms than cannabinol (CBN). It was first described in 1940 by Roger Adams's team in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, but it only reached the market in September 2021 in the United States and in May 2022 in Europe, according to the WHO.

It is made in two steps: CBD is converted into THC, Δ⁹ or Δ⁸, which our article on Δ8-THC describes, then hydrogenation saturates the remaining double bond. Hence the term "semi-synthetic".

The result is a mixture of two forms, 9R and 9S. In the same assay, 9R binds to the CB1 receptor, the one THC activates, with the same affinity as Δ⁹-THC (about 15 nM), while 9S binds about twelve times less strongly (176 nM). Products contain on average 1.4 parts of 9R to 1 of 9S, but the certificates of more than 60 commercial products ranged from 0.2 to 2.4 to 1 (Nasrallah and Garg, 2023): two products labelled "HHC" can act very differently.

CBD, by contrast, has no psychoactive effect; our article does CBD get you high explains why. HHC first benefited from a legal gap, since no text named it: for a year, shops and websites sold it openly, often on the CBD shelf.

HHC acts on the same receptors as THC and produces a psychoactive effect of the same order, carried mainly by its 9R form. The only human data from supervised use that we could find come from an exploratory study of six volunteers, with no placebo group, and no publication known to us supports the "potency" percentages repeated online.

In that Leipzig study, published in 2025 in Scientific Reports, three volunteers swallowed an HHC gummy and three inhaled it. Five felt an effect, all had a dry mouth, and one went from relaxed to panicked. Four showed clear impairment on balance and walking tests. The authors found the effects comparable to those of THC, with large differences from one person to another, and concluded that there is a potential risk to road safety.

The WHO also notes user accounts, which it considers anecdotal, of tremors, psychotic episodes or poor sleep on stopping.

Stronger than THC? It all depends on the mix of 9R and 9S, and the dose is just as uncertain: the printed content is usually not verified, the WHO notes, and in 2023 the ANSM reported concentrations of up to 99%. The WHO knows of no therapeutic use for it.

It has been sold as oils, resins, low-THC flowers sprayed with HHC under cannabis strain names, gummies, jellies, e-liquids and vapes (ANSM, 2023; WHO, 2024).

Yes, according to health authorities: the ANSM reports acute effects that are sometimes serious, and a risk of abuse and dependence of the same order as with cannabis. Studies remain few, and the real content of products is often unknown.

In its press release of 12 June 2023, the agency cites a racing heart, chest pain, blood-pressure surges, tremors, vomiting, anxiety, confusion or "bad trips". It notes that some people take it without knowing, believing they are taking CBD. It also points to a chemical structure close to that of Δ⁹-THC. In 2024, for the replacement molecules, it added loss of consciousness, coma and seizures.

In France, poison centres recorded 37 cases of self-reported HHC exposure between 1 January 2022 and 31 May 2023, 19 of them in May 2023 (Labadie et al., 2024). Signs were neurological in 85% of cases and cardiovascular in 61%; 59% of patients were hospitalised and 2 cases were rated severe. Only 6 had a biological test, and THC was also found in two of them.

Czech data give a sense of scale. Between May 2022 and April 2024, the toxicology information centre in Prague counted 196 poisoning cases, 185 with HHC and 11 with HHCP (Čečrle et al., 2025). Symptoms were neurological in 74% of cases, mostly drowsiness, tremor and dizziness. Thirty-nine patients were under 15, or 19% of cases. Where the product was known, 38% of cases involved gummies and 35% cigarettes, joints or vapes. Cases fell after the Czech ban of 1 March 2024, while those linked to HHCP, still allowed at the time, rose slightly.

On dependence, the WHO had found no study measuring it in 2024: the risk the ANSM retains comes from monitoring by France's addiction monitoring centres (CEIP-A). This pattern, a molecule that is legal by omission followed by ever less studied replacements, echoes the story told in our article on synthetic cannabinoids and harm reduction.

The HHC market grew in a few months, and each wave of replacement molecules drew a new regulatory response.

The decision of 22 May 2024 is not just a list of names. It covers the whole family of benzo[c]chromene derivatives, the chemical backbone shared by THC and HHC, plus several fully synthetic cannabinoids. The ANSM listed THCA in this family, but an amending decision, signed on 3 June 2024 and published on 4 June, excludes it when it comes from hemp whose THC content meets the 0.3% threshold. Our page on THCA covers this point, and others describe HHC's successors: H4-CBD, THCP and THCPO.

The director general of the ANSM, under article L5132-7 of the French Public Health Code, since Law no. 2020-1525 of 7 December 2020 and Decree no. 2022-113 of 1 February 2022 transferred this power from the health minister to the head of the agency (ANSM consolidated list). The sellers' challenges failed.

Article 2 of the decision of 12 June 2023 adds HHC, HHCO and hexahydrocannabiphorol (HHCP) to annex IV of the order of 22 February 1990, and its article 3 publishes it on the ANSM website. That is where it must be read: the version of the order on Légifrance, the official French legal database, does not include the agency's decisions taken since February 2022. A decision of 16 January 2026, published on 19 January, then cites the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs decisions of 12 March 2025 and moves HHC to annex III, the annex for Schedules I and II of the 1971 Convention. HHCO and HHCP remain in annex IV, and HHC is still a narcotic.

On 20 June 2023, the Conseil d'État's urgent-applications judge rejected the sellers' request for suspension, as no urgency had been shown (order no. 475108). On 7 March 2025, it rejected their application for annulment (decision no. 475367): in the current state of scientific knowledge, it held that HHC products have a "narcotic character", which rules out the free movement of goods. On 6 June 2025, it rejected in the same way the challenges to the decisions of May and June 2024 (decision no. 494779).

Banned in France since 13 June 2023, HHC has been listed since 6 December 2025 in Schedule II of the 1971 United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances. It is the first semi-synthetic cannabinoid placed under international control, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The Swedish, Czech and Irish dates come from scientific papers, not from the national texts. By the end of 2022, HHC had been detected in 70% of European Union states; by December 2025, 56 countries and territories had reported it. For cannabis itself, the rules vary far more, as our comparison of legal models around the world shows.

Classification makes HHC a controlled drug like any other. Production, sale, transport, possession, acquisition and use are banned in France. Article L3421-1 of the French Public Health Code punishes use with one year in prison and a €3,750 fine. Since Law no. 2026-798 of 18 August 2026, in force on 20 August, prosecution can be settled with a €500 fixed fine, reduced to €400 for prompt payment and raised to €1,000 for late payment.

Selling falls under drug trafficking, which is punished far more heavily. And driving after using a controlled substance falls under article L235-1 of the French Highway Code, which provides for up to 3 years in prison and a €9,000 fine; our article on CBD and driving explains this regime, and our article on the figures of French law puts these penalties in perspective.

Often, yes. Its metabolites can trigger cannabis screening tests, and only a laboratory analysis by mass spectrometry identifies the molecule.

According to the WHO, these metabolites react with the immunoassays designed for THC's main metabolite: a screen can come back positive without any THC use. In Sweden, from spring 2023, the share of false-positive THC screens rose from under 2% to over 10%, in saliva as in urine (Helander et al., 2024). In Leipzig, how immunological screening tests reacted to HHC varied from one test to another (Höfert et al., 2024).

In France, the Nancy university hospital analysed 867 saliva samples from drivers between 12 June and 31 December 2023: sixteen contained HHC, always together with THC (Derne et al., 2024). In severe poisonings, the ANSM considers immunochemical tests insufficient and calls for blood or urine analysis by mass spectrometry.

Article L235-1 covers driving after drug use, established by a blood or saliva analysis; our saliva test guide describes how a roadside check works. The only useful precaution is not to drive after using it.

A product sold as CBD should never promise a high. If it does, it either exceeds the THC threshold or contains a controlled cannabinoid. Four simple checks:

1. On the label, HHC, HHC-O, HHC-P, HHCPO, H4-CBD, THCP or any unfamiliar abbreviation is enough to rule the product out.
2. As for the promise, "powerful effect", a comparison with THC or a name that suggests intoxication has no place on a CBD product.
3. The certificate of analysis must carry the batch number of the product sold and a Δ⁹-THC level of 0.3% at most. Ask whether the lab looked for semi-synthetic cannabinoids, because a standard analysis does not always search for them.
4. Be wary of the format: in the poisonings recorded in the Czech Republic, gummies and products to smoke or vape dominated. Nothing visible distinguishes an HHC gummy from a CBD gummy.

Our guide shows how to read a certificate of analysis, and the laboratory page describes the measurement methods. The threshold itself is covered in our article on the legal THC level.

If you feel seriously unwell after using HHC or a similar product, call the emergency services without delay, as the ANSM advises. Drogues Info Service, the French national drug helpline, answers free and anonymously on 0 800 23 13 13, from 8 am to 11 pm, 7 days a week, and by chat on drogues-info-service.fr.

If you find it hard to stop, see a doctor or an addiction service; under-25s and their families can go to a "consultation jeunes consommateurs" (CJC), which is free and confidential. A serious case of abuse or dependence can be reported on signalement.social-sante.gouv.fr.