JWH-200.

JWH-200, also coded WIN 55,225, is a naphthoylindole of the aminoalkylindole subclass, a series derived from pravadoline and developed in the early 1990s before its cannabinoid mechanism was identified. It binds to the CB1 receptor with nanomolar affinity (IC50 of 7.8 nM against [3H]WIN 55,212-2 on rat cerebellum, according to ChEMBL) and activates it: contractions of the mouse vas deferens are blocked with an IC50 of 6.3 nM. In rats, substitution for the discriminative stimulus of Δ9-THC is complete, at doses that suppress behavioural responding little (Gatch and Forster, 2014). The synthetic cannabinoid agonists characterised to date mostly behave as full agonists, whereas Δ9-THC is only a partial agonist, but no measurement of maximal efficacy specific to JWH-200 was found, and neither CB2, nor TRPV1, nor GPR55, nor PPARγ, nor 5-HT1A has been studied for this compound. Human data are lacking: there is no clinical trial, no human pharmacokinetics and no documented dose-effect relationship. What is known comes from analytical toxicology and the laboratory: marked cytotoxicity on HepG2 hepatocytes, extensive hepatic metabolism, and detection in the serum of patients admitted to emergency departments for severe agitation.

Source

An entirely synthetic molecule, absent from cannabis and from any living organism: it has nothing to do with hemp or with cannabidiol products. It appeared on the synthetic cannabinoid market around 2009 (De Brabanter et al., 2013), and it was found in the serum of patients admitted to emergency departments for severe agitation (Lung et al., 2016); toxicology laboratories also look for it in saliva and hair.

No biosynthetic pathway: the molecule is produced by no living organism and comes solely from organic synthesis. Manufacture is described here only by its chemical class.

European Union

The substance is not listed in the Annex to Council Framework Decision 2004/757/JHA (consolidated version of 12 January 2026), which lists the new psychoactive substances controlled at European Union level; control is a matter for national law. It appears in the lists of the EUDA and of UNODC recording the synthetic cannabinoids reported (Zangani et al., 2020), which is monitoring and not control. It does not appear in the schedules of the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances (green list of the INCB, 35th and 36th editions). France cites this molecule by name in annex IV of its list.

France

A narcotic in France, cited by name. The ANSM consolidated list (updated 16 February 2026) cites JWH-200, in annex IV, under the entry « JWH-200 ou [1-[2-(4-morpholinyl)ethyl]-1H-indol-3-yl]-1-naphthalènyl-méthanone ou 1-[2-(4-morpholinyl) éthyl]-3-(1-naphthoyl) indole », as an example (« notamment ») of the generic family of the « indol-3-yl methanones »: a substituent on the indole nitrogen of the alkyl, haloalkyl, cycloalkylmethyl, 1-(N-methylpiperidin-2-yl)methyl or 2-(4-morpholinyl)ethyl type, and a naphthyl, benzyl, phenyl, cyclopropyl or adamantyl group on the carbon of the methanone bridge. This family was introduced into annex IV by the decree of 31 March 2017 (JORF of 6 April 2017). Classification therefore does not go through the clause covering tetrahydrocannabinols, their esters, ethers and salts (annex III since the decision of 6 February 2026), which does not apply to a naphthoylindole. Production, possession, transfer and use fall under the criminal regime for narcotics.

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

Family

Synthetic CB receptor agonist › New psychoactive substance

Class

naphthoylindole

Verification

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

Wikipedia (English)

JWH-200 (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. 1D'Ambra TE et al., C-Attached aminoalkylindoles: potent cannabinoid mimetics, Bioorg Med Chem Lett 1996;6:17-22 (JWH-200: IC50 7.8 nM and 6.3 nM, read from ChEMBL) (new tab)DOI 10.1016/0960-894X(95)00560-G
2. 2Eissenstat MA et al., Aminoalkylindoles: structure-activity relationships of novel cannabinoid mimetics, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 1995 (role of the morpholinoethyl chain and the naphthyl group) (new tab)PMID 7636873
3. 3Bell MR et al., Antinociceptive (aminoalkyl)indoles, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 1991 (the Sterling Research Group's aminoalkylindole series) (new tab)PMID 1900533
4. 4De Brabanter N et al., In vivo and in vitro metabolism of the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-200, Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 2013 (twenty-two metabolites, urinary marker) (new tab)PMID 23943333
5. 5Gampfer TM et al., Cytotoxicity, metabolism, and isozyme mapping of the synthetic cannabinoids JWH-200, A-796260, and 5F-EMB-PINACA, Archives of Toxicology, 2021 (HepG2 cytotoxicity, isoenzyme mapping) (new tab)PMID 34453555
6. 6Gatch MB, Forster MJ, Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol-like discriminative stimulus effects of compounds commonly found in K2/Spice, Behavioural Pharmacology, 2014 (full substitution for THC and locomotor depression) (new tab)PMID 25325289
7. 7Lung D et al., Non-targeted screening for novel psychoactive substances among agitated emergency department patients, Clinical Toxicology, 2016 (JWH-200 identified in serum) (new tab)PMID 26846684
8. 8Wagmann L et al., Inhibition and stimulation of the human breast cancer resistance protein as in vitro predictor of drug-drug interactions, Archives of Toxicology, 2018 (JWH-200 among the most potent inhibitors of BCRP ATPase) (new tab)PMID 30083819
9. 9Fojtíková L et al., Lateral flow immunoassay and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay as effective immunomethods for the detection of synthetic cannabinoid JWH-200, Toxicology Reports, 2018 (new tab)PMID 29276691
10. 10Rodrigues WC, Catbagan P, Rana S, Wang G, Moore C. Detection of synthetic cannabinoids in oral fluid using ELISA and LC-MS-MS. J Anal Toxicol. 2013;37(8):526-33 (JWH-200 as the standard for an oral-fluid immunoassay) (new tab)PMID 23946452
11. 11Hutter M, Kneisel S, Auwärter V, Neukamm MA. Determination of 22 synthetic cannabinoids in human hair by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. J Chromatogr B. 2012;903:95-101 (new tab)PMID 22835826
12. 12Adamowicz P, Malczyk A, Stability of JWH-200 and 5F-AB-PINACA synthetic cannabinoids in blood and urine, Problems of Forensic Sciences, 2018, vol. 116, pp. 375-384 (new tab)
13. 13Mercier G, Mohamed KA, Zagzoog A, et al. In vitro pharmacological activity of twenty-eight synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists at the type 1 and 2 cannabinoid receptors. Neurochem Int. 2025 (abstract: class toxicities) (new tab)PMID 40876783
14. 14Howlett AC, et al. The Spicy Story of Cannabimimetic Indoles. Molecules 2021 (JWH-200 cited in the US scheduling) (new tab)PMID 34684770
15. 15ANSM, consolidated list of substances classified as narcotics (updated 16 February 2026), annex IV, JWH-200 entry (indol-3-yl methanone family) (new tab)
16. 16Order of 31 March 2017 amending the order of 22 February 1990 setting the list of substances classified as narcotics (annex IV, « indol-3-yl methanone » family), JORF of 6 April 2017 (new tab)
17. 17PubChem, compound record CID 10045570 (JWH-200): identifiers and synonyms (new tab)

SMILES

C1COCCN1CCN2C=C(C3=CC=CC=C32)C(=O)C4=CC=CC5=CC=CC=C54

Machine-readable entry (JSON)

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