CUMYL-PEGACLONE.

CUMYL-PEGACLONE is a full agonist at the cannabinoid receptors, with affinities of the same order for hCB1 (Ki of 1.37 nM) and hCB2 (Ki of 2.09 nM) and functional activation of CB1 obtained at nanomolar concentrations, or even lower depending on the assay used. It recruits mini-Gαi and beta-arrestin 2 very efficiently: it is this maximal activation, where THC behaves only as a partial agonist, that separates the two molecules in terms of risk. The rest of the file is thin. No clinical study, no controlled assessment of abuse potential in humans, an almost unexplored pharmacokinetics, and observations drawn almost solely from forensic medicine: a few poisonings, convulsions in two adolescents exposed without their knowledge, and series of deaths in which the substance was found, most often alongside other products. Human data are lacking to go further.

Source

An entirely synthetic molecule, absent from cannabis as from any other plant. It has circulated on the market of smoking mixtures known as “spice”, sprayed onto plant material or dissolved into liquid for vaping, under changing trade names. Its gamma-carbolinone nucleus, unprecedented at the time, appears to have been chosen to escape the generic definitions of the German law on new psychoactive substances that came into force at the end of 2016.

No known biosynthetic pathway: this molecule exists in no living organism and comes exclusively from chemical synthesis on a gamma-carbolinone nucleus. Manufacture is described here only by its chemical class.

European Union

The molecule was placed in Schedule II of the 1971 Convention on psychotropic substances by the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs at its 64th session (12-16 April 2021), the decision entering into force on 7 December 2021 (UNODC announcement). The WHO had reviewed it at the 43rd meeting of its Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (2020), which noted that it was then under no international control. Member States of the European Union, being parties to that convention, are required to control it; Germany had already done so in 2018 (narcotics law) and Sweden in 2019. Its detection was reported in sixteen European countries and in Japan from 2017 to 2019 (WHO report, UNODC data).

France

In France, CUMYL-PEGACLONE is scheduled as a narcotic by name. The decision of the Director General of ANSM of 30 August 2022 added “cumyl-pegaclone” to annex III of the decree of 22 February 1990, as shown by the consolidated list published by ANSM (updated 16 February 2026), whose annex III is headed “Schedules I and II of the 1971 Convention on psychotropic substances”. Possession, transfer and use fall under the criminal regime for narcotics, and no product sold here contains it.

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

Family

Synthetic CB receptor agonist › New psychoactive substance

Class

gamma-carbolinone

Verification

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

Wikipedia (English)

CUMYL-PEGACLONE (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. 1WHO, Expert Committee on Drug Dependence, 43rd meeting: Critical Review Report CUMYL-PEGACLONE (2020) (new tab)
2. 2UNODC, announcement of the CND decisions (64th session, April 2021): CUMYL-PEGACLONE and MDMB-4en-PINACA in Schedule II of the 1971 Convention, entry into force on 7 December 2021 (new tab)
3. 3ANSM, decision of 30 August 2022 amending the list of substances classified as narcotics (new tab)
4. 4ANSM, consolidated list of substances classified as narcotics, updated 16 February 2026 (annex III) (new tab)
5. 5Angerer et al., Structural characterization and pharmacological evaluation of the new synthetic cannabinoid CUMYL-PEGACLONE, Drug Testing and Analysis, 2018 (new tab)PMID 28670781
6. 6Mogler et al., Phase I metabolism of the recently emerged synthetic cannabinoid CUMYL-PEGACLONE and detection in human urine samples, Drug Testing and Analysis, 2018 (new tab)PMID 29314750
7. 7Tiemensma et al., Emergence of Cumyl-PEGACLONE-related fatalities in the Northern Territory of Australia, Forensic Science Medicine and Pathology, 2021 (new tab)PMID 33185835
8. 8Li et al., Assessment of pharmacological effects and abuse potential of 5F-EDMB-PICA, CUMYL-PEGACLONE, and NM-2201 in mice, Psychopharmacology, 2025 (new tab)PMID 39402377
9. 9Halter et al., Quantification of herbal mixtures containing Cumyl-PEGACLONE: is inhomogeneity still an issue?, Journal of Analytical Toxicology, 2020 (new tab)PMID 31044247
10. 10PubChem, CUMYL-PEGACLONE, CID 134818034 (new tab)

SMILES

CCCCCN1C2=C(C3=CC=CC=C31)C(=O)N(C=C2)C(C)(C)C4=CC=CC=C4

Machine-readable entry (JSON)

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