For wanting to discover a forbidden pleasure, four underage adolescents from Bordeaux unknowingly tasted an overkill synthetic drug.
They will long remember their “initiation” to smoking, carried out a few hours before Christmas Eve.
One of the young boys, in circumstances which remain to be clarified, procures cannabis.
Then he makes a joint.
Everyone barely takes a hit, thinking they are just dizzy.
But within minutes, the health of the four teenagers suddenly deteriorates.
They are seriously ill, victims of violent nausea with vomiting.
Some people have a racing heart and have low blood pressure.
Other serious ailments: hallucinations with a sensation of imminent death.
Very unusual symptoms
Quickly alerted, the emergency services decided to urgently hospitalize the four young people at the Bordeaux University Hospital Center.
One of them even has a temporary loss of memory: he doesn't even remember shooting a joint.
At the start of the week, no details were given on their condition and the possible consequences on their health.
But their days did not seem to cause concern, according to a hospital source.
The victims should be quits for a great fright.
But the matter will not end there.
Local health officials quickly wanted to know more to understand the severity of the symptoms, which are very unusual for having smoked so little cannabis.
Analyzes were carried out urgently at the toxicology laboratory of the Bordeaux University Hospital.
And its results are worrying.
Synthetic cannabis has been discovered.
This is the MDMB-4en-Pinaca.
According to medical authorities, it constitutes a "health risk".
In recent years, police have frequently seized synthetic cannabinoids.
DR
This molecule is well known to the police officers in charge of the fight against drug trafficking.
It appeared in Europe in 2017, then in France, and it is already the cause of several deaths.
This substance, most often sold in sachets, is very harmful due to its explosive composition.
These synthetic cannabinoids, of chemical and artificial origin therefore, reproduce the effects of the active principle of cannabis, THC (Tetra Hydro Cannabinol), but with a much stronger effect on the body and therefore more devastating.
Usually, this synthetic cannabis is sprayed onto weed sold as regular cannabis.
According to the Bordeaux addiction center, which sent a warning note to local health professionals, a single puff of a joint is enough despite a low dosage to have very dangerous effects.
To date, this is the first time this year that this substance has been identified in a drug case in Bordeaux.
But it has already been the subject of emergency notes in France, in October for example in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region where regular users have been faced with the same problems.
In Caen, the disturbing success of "Pète ton crâne"
Other substances from the same family of synthetic cannabinoids also circulate: in Normandy in Caen, an alert concerned serious adverse effects linked to the consumption of synthetic cannabinoids in the form of e-liquid in adolescents, made from products bought on the Internet and called PTC, "Pète ton crâne", or purchased directly by consumers through the Darknet.
In Europe, the Swiss drug analysis system has identified around 30 samples of herbal cannabis containing synthetic cannabinoids over the past three months.
Morning essentials newsletter
A tour of the news to start the day
Subscribe to the newsletterAll newsletters
In Bordeaux, the authorities are following the case very closely in a city where drug consumption, in particular cocaine, is spreading, according to the latest report from the French Observatory for Drugs and Drug Addiction.
It is now a question of determining the origin of synthetic cannabis which caused serious discomfort in adolescents.
According to a police officer in charge of the fight against drug trafficking in the city, “you have to quickly know where it comes from and if it is an isolated phenomenon.
Because otherwise, it is very worrying ”.
