Cannabis baking is no longer what it used to be. Traditional marijuana cakes that consumers could make at home, with the same recipe as a bakery, brownie, But by adding some buds of the psychoactive plant, they have become professionalized and the offer of sweets seasoned with cannabinoids has diversified: there are colored jelly beans, sugary sweets, crisps and even bread rolls with chocolate. The market is expanding and with it, the concerns of public health experts and police forces about the trafficking of these substances and their impact on health: sometimes, the compounds that are being found in sweets are synthetic derivatives of THC – the cannabinoid that produces the psychoactive effect – but much more potent and with a greater risk of intoxication. In the worst case, exposure to these substances in young people with a certain genetic predisposition can end in the development of serious psychotic problems. The Mossos d’Esquadra have reported this Thursday the arrest of a man who owned a workshop in Badalona, where he infused THC into sweets, candies and snacks purchased legally, in a quantity that posed a “high risk” to health. The final public was the regular consumer of marijuana, and they were not found in supermarkets or traditional stores.
The leader of the organisation dismantled by the Catalan police, a 35-year-old Italian man, made different products in the workshop with the help of several people, both sweet and savoury, which they treated according to their own composition. In the case of wafers filled with creamy milk, like Kinder Bueno, they directly injected the THC dissolved in alcohol, or in other cases they painted them with chocolate already infused with THC. They also made savoury corn snacks smeared with a fat with dissolved THC, and then dried them in the oven. In addition, they adulterated bags of potato chips of well-known brands, which they injected with the drug. During the investigation, the agents sent samples to the National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences, which determined that it was a danger to the food safety of the population.
Cannabis According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), cannabis is the most widely cultivated, trafficked and consumed illicit drug. The plant contains hundreds of chemical compounds, but the psychoactive potential of this substance is due, above all, to the amount of Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) it contains: this toxic active ingredient is the main cause of the altered state of consciousness that characterises the consumption of this drug. However, there are other cannabinoids in the plant that can also generate synergies and modulate, inhibit or change the effects of THC, such as cannabidiol (CBD), which reduces some of its negative effects, or synthetic derivatives with toxicity still unknown to health authorities. In short, excessive consumption of cannabis can cause nervousness, tachycardia, paranoia, slowness of movement, reduced ability to concentrate or remember, drops in blood pressure and even psychotic episodes.
Smoking a joint remains the most common way to consume cannabis, but the emergence of new formats for oral consumption of its psychoactive compounds has set off the alarms The issue is a matter of concern to health authorities, who monitor their spread and the acute poisoning they cause. Oral consumption has different biorhythms to smoking, for example: absorption through the digestive tract is more complex and the effects take longer to appear and also to go away. Emilio Salgado, a clinical toxicologist at the Hospital Clínic in Barcelona, admits his “concern” about the rise of cannabis edibles and their potential damage to health. “Last year we saw one poisoning in our emergency room due to these products and this year we have already had eight cases,” he describes.
Salgado focuses on the appearance of products with synthetic or semi-synthetic cannabis components, such as HHC and THCP: “A couple of months ago, three people who bought products with HHC in a cannabis store ended up in the emergency room and one of them was in a difficult situation. These are derivatives of the THC molecule that are in a situation of illegality. And then there are also other synthetic cannabinoids, molecules produced in laboratories, similar to THC, but which are much more potent than THC itself, up to 10 times more, and the possibility of intoxication is also greater,” he explains.
A catalog on social networks
Poisoning is one of the main concerns of the Mossos investigators, who found that the dismantled group offered its catalogue of products on Telegram, with prices included, which ranged between 15 and 30 euros, depending on the weight of THC, as explained in a press conference by the head of the Mossos consumer unit, Santi López. On each bag, which they then stamped with their own brand, they indicated the quantity of THC, which the police repeat has increased exponentially in recent years. “It is a new paradigm of consumption, it is no longer smoked, it is eaten. It is a change in use, which should cause us to be alert, not alarmed. We camouflage consumption in more everyday actions. We normalise drug consumption and trivialise the risk it entails,” lamented the head of the Mossos. He also stressed that the resin used for THC “has a higher concentration of the active ingredient” and that the fact that it is eaten is an added risk. “The effects of smoking last half an hour, and eating it doubles. If the person is not a regular consumer, they may continue eating to get high,” he warned.
During surveillance, the Catalan police’s consumer unit also found that they distributed to any part of Europe. The workshop was constantly filled with people, who at the end of the day left loaded with sealed cardboard boxes containing the final product. They got into a taxi and delivered the orders locally, or took them to an international transport company. The Mossos have detected shipments to Italy, France and Germany, as well as to cannabis associations in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. Payment was always made through cryptocurrencies, and the police say that some movements are valued at more than 480,000 euros. The final consumer, the Mossos insist, was the regular marijuana user. “These products are not found in supermarkets or in neighbourhood shops,” said López.
Cannabis has been in a legislative limbo for decades and the derivatives that are emerging cling to this complex administrative web. The police insist that the sale of any product containing THC is prohibited, and the legal battle continues over the cultivation of cannabis with only CBD, in principle without psychoactive substance. In addition, police sources insist, any new synthetic variant that is shown to have harmful effects on health can be prosecuted, not as drug trafficking if they are not officially recognized as such, but as a product that affects public health. In 2020, EU Member States notified 6,300 seizures, with a total of 236 kilograms of material containing synthetic cannabinoids.
In Europe, 263 synthetic cannabinoids are being monitored and three of them are under intensive surveillance, explains Joan Ramon Villalbí, Government delegate for the National Plan on Drugs. The epidemiologist confirms that there have been “recent alerts on gummies with cannabinoids such as HHCPO, THCP and THCA”, but it is not easy to intervene, he admits. “The new phenomenon is these gummies with synthetic cannabinoids that are not identified. As they are so new, they are not yet banned. It must be taken into account that they are labelled on the market with the substance, they do not deceive. Sometimes, they even come with the indication ‘not suitable for consumption’. So, as they say, for example, that they are ‘for bathing’ and are not classified as narcotics, it is not possible to act against them”, he exemplifies. The process to classify new substances as narcotics in the United Nations Conventions, he adds, is slow. “At the international level, it is not possible to modify the list except by prior agreement of the WHO. In some member states, such as France or Belgium, they have made their own standards and in Spain the possibility of classifying them is being considered,” Villalbí says.
There is a lot at stake, especially in terms of health. “The time it takes to take effect is different. When smoking it, when it reaches the bloodstream through the lung, it goes to the brain and the impact is immediate. But the amount used for a joint has nothing to do with what is ingested orally,” warns Salgado. In addition, this delay in the perception of the psychoactive effects when these edibles with cannabinoids are ingested can give the false sensation that they have not taken effect and invite continued consumption, which leads to a greater amount of toxic substances in the body and a greater risk of intoxication.
That are dispensed in packages of candy, cookies or snackswith bright colours and for recreational use, can also give the impression that these products are harmless. Experts also warn that due to their illegal status and the fact that they do not undergo any health or consumer control, the user is going in blind: they do not know for sure what compounds they are ingesting or the exact quantity that each candy contains.
Nausea, vomiting and behavioral changes
“What worries me most is consumption by minors or, accidentally, by children, because they see the candy at home and eat it, for example,” says Salgado. The effects vary according to age and the clinical toxicologist also points out that in the case of young people, most people may have mixed the consumption of these cannabis sweets with other substances, such as alcohol or cocaine. “In younger children, the effects vary according to age and the clinical toxicologist also points out that, in the case of young people, the majority of people may have mixed the consumption of these cannabis sweets with other substances, such as alcohol or cocaine. [que suele ser ingesta accidental]the manifestation of intoxication is drowsiness and a depressed level of consciousness. In young adults, the symptoms are nausea, vomiting and, later, behavioural changes: THC has hallucinogenic potential and THCA has psychotropic potential and there is a risk that it may cause psychotic symptoms,” he explains.
The effects can last between 12 and 24 hours, depending on the amount of substance ingested. And the severity also depends on the consumption, the mixture and the underlying problems of the user. “With four of those gummies, [con compuestos sintéticos o semisintéticos del THC] “You can end up in intensive care with an infusion of tranquilizing medication due to extreme psychomotor agitation,” warns Salgado. In the long term, in addition, in adolescents, who are in the process of cognitive and personality development, if there is excessive consumption, it can alter the endocannabinoid system of the brain, which is a network of neural connections that is key to memory. In addition, in people with a genetic predisposition to mental health problems, cannabis consumption can trigger the first psychotic outbreak and trigger a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia.
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