PTC drug ('pète ton crâne'): composition, effects, risks

PTC has no fixed composition. The name describes a way of selling rather than a molecule. According to Drogues Info Service, the French national drug helpline, it comes as a liquid for e-cigarettes, as a powder, or sprayed onto a blend of dried plants. Its effects do not come from THC.

In a warning dated 6 February 2025, the ANSM states that e-liquids sold as "PTC" or "Buddha Blue" mostly contain synthetic cannabinoids, sometimes combined with synthetic benzodiazepines.

The carrier can also be hemp. From spring 2020, nine European drug-checking services tested 1,142 samples sold as cannabis, as herb, resin or e-liquid. 270 contained MDMB-4en-PINACA. The plant samples contained less than 1% THC, and the e-liquids no plant cannabinoids at all. In other words, low-THC hemp had been used as a carrier for the synthetic molecule.

In Switzerland, a 2022 study run with three drug-checking services found up to three synthetic cannabinoids in 50% of the 94 samples received. MDMB-4en-PINACA was again the most common.

In France, the cannabinoids found in the bottles analysed in Île-de-France (the Paris region) in 2025 were exclusively synthetic cannabinoids, with no semi-synthetic cannabinoid at all, alone or in mixtures: up to eight different ones in a single bottle, according to the TREND report of the OFDT (the French observatory on drugs and addictive trends), dated June 2026 and published on 15 July 2026. Among the main synthetic cannabinoids that the SINTES system identifies there, the report names MDMB-PINACA, ADB-BUTINACA, CUMYL-PINACA and JWH-018.

Buddha Blue is a sales name, not a molecule. The ANSM uses it as another name for PTC, and the DGS-Urgent message of 11 June 2026, sent to all health professionals, groups "PTC", Buddha Blue, Spleen and K2 under the same street names. The OFDT describes these products as bottles of vaping glycerine that contain mixtures of highly concentrated synthetic cannabinoids, odourless and colourless, resold cheaply to teenagers and young adults. In the 2025 observations, Buddha Blue appears "more marginally" than PTC and Spleen.

Official alerts have followed one another since 2024, with rising numbers.

The minutes of the ANSM committee specify that, among the cases where an e-liquid could be analysed, 78% contained synthetic cannabinoids, alone or combined with other substances. The DGS adds that these molecules are often hard to identify in blood or urine, whereas they can be identified in the recovered liquid.

The name written on a puff or a bottle does not tell you what it contains. French analyses of e-liquids linked to poisonings mostly find synthetic cannabinoids, including in products presented as CBD. No analysis published in France covers a "THC puff" category as such: what is documented are the liquids actually vaped by the people who were poisoned.

In these poisoning-related liquids, the ANSM committee notes a frequent mismatch between label and content, the most frequent case being products supposed to contain only CBD that also contained a synthetic cannabinoid. At the same session, a study of a different kind was presented, run by the CEIP-A addiction-monitoring centres of Lyon, Paris and Montpellier with the toxicology department in Lille, on products sold as CBD, including products for inhalation. Apart from the usual natural cannabinoids or semi-synthetic ones, it found no other substance in them, and therefore no synthetic cannabinoid. In this study, 5.4% of the samples contained new semi-synthetic cannabinoids, 12% exceeded 0.3% THC, and only 10% matched their label exactly.

Drogues Info Service says it plainly: several products have been sold as CBD e-liquid when they contained synthetic cannabinoids. The OFDT reports that about half of the minors seen in emergency departments in Île-de-France did not know they had taken PTC, after drawing on a friend's puff.

A "THC" puff runs into two rules in France. Disposable vapes have been banned from sale since the entry into force of law no. 2025-175 of 24 February 2025, whatever their liquid. Our article on the disposable vape ban explains this law in detail. A liquid whose Δ9-THC content exceeds 0.30% also falls outside the hemp framework: the order of 30 December 2021 caps the content of hemp extracts and of the products that contain them at this threshold, and tetrahydrocannabinols are on the narcotics list.

THC and synthetic cannabinoids bind to the same receptor, CB1, but they do not activate it in the same way. THC is a partial agonist: even at high doses it only partly activates the receptor. Synthetic cannabinoids are full agonists: they can activate it to the maximum.

A review published in 2017 sums up the difference: where THC behaves as a partial agonist, synthetic cannabinoids act as full agonists of the CB1 and CB2 receptors, in cell assays as well as in animals. Several of their metabolites remain active themselves. The authors conclude that these products should not be seen as safe alternatives to cannabis.

That is what makes PTC unpredictable. Someone who thinks they are smoking or vaping cannabis doses as they would for cannabis, with a molecule that does not level off and a concentration that neither they nor the seller know. Our article on the effects of CBD and THC explains, by contrast, why CBD does not get you high.

For the vaping of these e-liquids, the ANSM describes psychiatric episodes (delusions, hallucinations, suicidal thoughts), cardiovascular and digestive problems, kidney damage and severe dependence with withdrawal. In 2024, new cases of teenagers hospitalised after vaping PTC were reported to the agency.

When it classified new cannabinoids in 2024, the agency also listed vomiting, loss of consciousness, coma and seizures. In the Swiss study, users of products containing synthetic cannabinoids reported more adverse effects than those whose sample held only THC, especially psychological and cardiac ones.

The DGS message of June 2026 describes varied, non-specific presentations: agitation, confusion, seizures and impaired consciousness up to coma, hallucinations and panic attacks, a racing heart (tachycardia) or, on the contrary, a slow one (bradycardia), nausea and vomiting. In the most severe forms, several organs are affected at the same time. Of the reports received since early 2025, 71% were serious cases and two deaths were reported, one after repeated seizures, the other by suicide.

Drogues Info Service adds that these products are more addictive than cannabis. Home-made mixtures raise the risk of overdose, because the dose is even less controlled.

Synthetic cannabinoids are narcotics in France. Since the order of 31 March 2017, the narcotics list has covered whole chemical families, not only named molecules. Among them are the "3-carboxamide indazole derivatives", the chemical family of MDMB-4en-PINACA. Classifying by family targets the variants that manufacturers create to get around bans.

MDMB-4en-PINACA is also listed by name: an ANSM decision of 9 December 2021 placed it in Annex III of the list, following its European and international classification. The agency later added other synthetic cannabinoids and H4CBD from 3 June 2024.

Producing, selling, possessing or using PTC therefore falls under narcotics law. A compliant CBD product, for its part, must be able to show a Δ⁹-THC content of 0.3% or less.

Nothing visible guarantees that a liquid or a herb has not been tampered with. The contaminated European samples were sold as ordinary cannabis, and only analysis revealed the molecule. Rapid cannabis tests do not detect these molecules either, the ANSM notes: a specialised analysis is needed.

Several signs should raise a flag. The first four come from the observations of the OFDT and the DGS:

1. A "THC" or "CBD" e-liquid offered through a messaging app, on a social network or near a secondary school (OFDT). The OFDT also reports purchases in CBD shops: the place of sale guarantees nothing.
2. A 10 ml bottle with no brand and no detailed label, clear, black or white, sold for around €10 (OFDT).
3. An odourless, colourless liquid that goes unnoticed (DGS, OFDT).
4. A puff that someone lends you or describes as "doctored", or an e-liquid with a new taste or flavour (OFDT, ARS Île-de-France).
5. A sudden effect unrelated to what the product claims. A product sold as CBD that gets you high is not a "strong" CBD: it contains something else.
6. A seller unable to say what is in the bottle.

Our feature on synthetic cannabinoids and harm reduction adds further pointers, and the one on HHC covers semi-synthetic molecules.

If someone shows agitation, chest pain, seizures or loss of consciousness after using, call 15 (SAMU, the French emergency medical service) or 112; deaf or hard-of-hearing people contact 114 by text message, app or internet. Do not leave the person alone, and keep the product or its packaging if possible, without handling it: it can guide medical care.

For questions or support in France, Drogues Info Service answers on 0 800 23 13 13, anonymously and free of charge, every day from 8 am to 11 pm since 1 October 2026, and by chat from noon to 7 pm, according to its announcement of 30 September 2026. Youth consumer consultations (CJC) see 12- to 25-year-olds and their parents free of charge.

To find out what was actually taken, you can contact the addiction-monitoring centre (CEIP-A) or the poison control centre in your region. Health professionals can have a product analysed free of charge and anonymously through the OFDT's SINTES system. Adverse effects are reported on the official portal signalement.social-sante.gouv.fr.