A-PONASA.

A-PONASA is a naphthalene sulfonamide bearing an adamantane cage, classed among cannabinoid receptor agonists by its structure and by the market in which it was found, never by a measurement. Its acronym breaks the molecule down according to European nomenclature: adamantyl group, pentyloxy chain, naphthalene ring and sulfonamide bridge. The 4-pentyloxynaphthalene fragment is that of CB-13, a mixed CB1 and CB2 agonist, but this kinship says nothing about the activity of A-PONASA itself: no affinity, no efficacy, no functional assay has been published, and the ACMD report notes that no pharmacological information is available. The question that matters remains open: the hazard of synthetic cannabinoids rests on full CB1 agonism, where Δ9-THC is only a partial agonist whose effect plateaus, and it is not known whether this molecule behaves in that way. Metabolism, kinetics and toxicology have not been studied, human data are lacking, and the two identifications reported by the ACMD concern powders seized in 2021, with no associated clinical case.

Source

An entirely synthetic molecule, absent from hemp as from any living organism. It belongs to the synthetic cannabinoid market: the two seizures reported by the ACMD involved powders, one of which was travelling from China. Powders of this type are generally dissolved and sprayed onto an inert plant substrate or onto paper, so that the finished product bears no resemblance to the material bought in bulk. No medical, food or industrial use is known for this compound. The substance is not an ingredient of any legally marketed CBD product, and its presence in an article sold as "CBD" would indicate adulteration.

No biological pathway: this compound arises from no plant or animal metabolism. It is the product of organic synthesis alone, and no publication consulted describes its preparation.

European Union

There is no harmonised control measure at European Union level: the compound is not in the annex to Framework Decision 2004/757/JHA, which is extended by delegated act of the Commission after an initial report and then a risk assessment, a procedure followed for instance for MDMB-4en-PINACA in 2021. Scheduling therefore falls to each Member State, several of which have generic definitions or general laws on new synthetic products. Outside the Union, in the United Kingdom, the ACMD reports no national detection and recommends a consultation on modifying the generic control of synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists, so as to include compounds detected abroad and still uncontrolled, this one among them (annex A of its 2023 report). Internationally, the substance appears in no schedule of the United Nations conventions.

France

In France, the substance is not scheduled. It appears by name neither in annex IV of the decree of 22 February 1990 nor in the consolidated list of narcotics maintained by the ANSM, in its version of 16 February 2026, and it falls within none of the generic families of synthetic cannabinoids listed in that annex: these families are defined notably by an indole, indazole, pyrrole, indene, pyrrolo[3,2-c]pyridine, cyclohexylphenol or benzo[c]chromene core, whereas this compound rests on a naphthalene linked by a sulfonamide bridge. The generic clause covering "tetrahydrocannabinols, their esters, ethers, salts as well as the salts of the aforementioned derivatives" does not apply either, the molecule being neither a tetrahydrocannabinol nor a derivative of one. This is therefore an absence of scheduling, not a listing by name or under a generic clause. That absence amounts to neither authorisation nor guarantee: no human use is permitted, and the ANSM may schedule a substance or broaden a generic definition at any time, as it did in 2024 for the benzo[c]chromene family.

Sources: EUR-Lex, UNODC, CND, ANSM, IUPHAR/BPS, ChEBI, EUDA. Our method.

Family

Synthetic CB receptor agonist › New psychoactive substance

Class

naphthalene sulfonamide (naphthyl core, sulfonamide linker, pentyloxy tail, adamantyl linked group; EUDA nomenclature)

Verification

Classification, sources and binding values checked on 20 October 2026; text read against its sources and Wikipedia.

Wikipedia (English)

A-PONASA (new tab)

Article paired by the molecule's structure (InChIKey), revision read on 19 October 2026. Read as a second opinion, never cited as a source.

1. 1Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, Cumyl-PeGaClone and other recently encountered synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists: a review of the evidence on their use and harms, United Kingdom, 2023 (annex A, A-PONASA record) (new tab)
2. 2Andrews R, Jorge R, Christie R, Gallegos A, From JWH-018 to OXIZIDS: structural evolution of synthetic cannabinoids in the European Union from 2008 to present day, Drug Testing and Analysis, 2023, 15(4), 378-387 (core-tail-link-linked group description framework; the full text was not consulted) (new tab)PMID 36507715
3. 3Dziadulewicz EK et al., Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 2007: naphthalen-1-yl-(4-pentyloxynaphthalen-1-yl)methanone (CB-13), a potent mixed human CB1/CB2 agonist (fragment shared with A-PONASA; does not concern A-PONASA) (new tab)PMID 17630726
4. 4Lambeng N, Lebon F, Christophe B, Burton M, De Ryck M, Quéré L, Arylsulfonamides as a new class of cannabinoid CB1 receptor ligands: identification of a lead and initial SAR studies, Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 2007 (data relating to another arylsulfonamide scaffold, not to this compound) (new tab)PMID 17027269
5. 5ANSM, consolidated list of substances classified as narcotics, updated 16 February 2026 (Annex IV of the order of 22 February 1990) (new tab)
6. 6PubChem CID 170915645, A-Ponasa (new tab)

SMILES

CCCCCOc1ccc(S(=O)(=O)NC23CC4CC(CC(C4)C2)C3)c2ccccc12

Machine-readable entry (JSON)

LLM ingestion format: a structured superset of the entry (identifiers, binding, versioned legal status). Full corpus.