Drugs in France: the Sintes system reveals new trends and emerging substances

The OFDT (French Observatory of Drugs and Addictive Trends) revealed the latest drug consumption trends in France in mid-December 2024. The emergence of new psychoactive substances is also noted in its annual synthesis, produced by its National Identification System for Toxicants and Substances (Sintes). The Point Sintes ndeg10 thus provides an overview of illicit molecules in circulation on the territory for the purpose of monitoring and surveillance. The aim is to prevent and reduce the risks incurred by consumers in party environments, for example, who are unaware of the composition and side effects of the drugs they buy.

How are substances collected by the Sintes device?

731 psychoactive products were collected during the year 2023, much more than in 2022, and these collections are increasing from year to year. They are operated by a network of associations, nurses, doctors, educators, members of drug dependence-addictovigilance assessment and information centers, spread throughout mainland France and in two overseas departments (Guyana and Reunion).

To this must be added a network of toxicological analysis laboratories dependent on various entities: scientific police, customs, gendarmerie, general directorate of Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control. Each year, the Sintes system notes in its collections illicit products, therefore fully recognized and blacklisted by law, and others still unregulated, qualified as emerging. The galenic (physical aspect of the product) of the substances collected is very variable: powders, liquids, tablets, plant debris, blotting papers, etc.

What are the trends identified in 2023?

It should be noted as a preamble that 17 identifications of new synthetic products (NPS) were notified by the Sintes system to the Early Warning System of the European Union Agency for Drugs (Euda). This is less than in 2022. Among the new synthetic molecules concocted by clandestine chemists, synthetic cannabinoids and semisynthetic cannabinoids are in the majority.

• Cocaine : Cocaine is the most frequently collected product in 2023 with 131 samples, representing a third of total collections. It is consumed mainly in party environments, but also in professional environments or alone. The samples analyzed show little concentration and adulteration, that is to say that they are very little, if at all, cut with other products, a trend observed since 2018 by the OFDT. The market for the supply of this drug from Peru, Colombia and Bolivia is constantly increasing for almost 30 years, and the routes taken to transport it to Europe have multiplied. Ultimately, it is the volume of seizures by the French authorities that is also increasing.
• Cannabis products. Three categories characterized by very different forms and high concentrations of active product appear in the collections:
  • You can find out more about it here. oils and resins with high content of delta⁹-THC
  • You can find out more about it here. semisynthetic cannabinoidss, resulting from the transformation of natural substances of the plant by a chemical process. The best known of this chemical category, and which appears at the top of the samples, is hexahydrocannabinol (HHC), classified as a narcotic since June 2023.
  • You can find out more about it here. purely synthetic cannabinoids. They are sold in extremely varied, attractive and falsely harmless : oils, jelly candies or fruit pastes, identified by the Sintes report as "edible products". Synthetic cannabinoids are also found in vaping liquids. Edibles and e-liquids are however advertised as containing only CBDIt should be noted that the report highlights the extreme youth of the users behind the collections of these vaping products, 18 years old for a large number of them.
• Synthetic cathinones : 99 collections analyzed by the Sintes system in 2023 included at least one synthetic cathinone. This chemical class is the most varied due to the game of hide-and-seek between manufacturers and legislators in Europe. This complicates the work of the analysis laboratories that must detect them. 3-CMC is the synthetic cathinone most identified in the Sintes system in 2023, and very often sold to users as 3-MMC. Also appearing among the cathinones detected in the collected products are derivatives of pentedrone, including N-ethylnorpentedrone, placed under intensive surveillance by the Euda early warning system.
• Nitazenes : A category of synthetic opioids, classified as narcotics in July 2024, was identified by the Sintes system when, between March and April 2023, a cluster of isotonitazene poisonings was reported in Montpellier. Isotonitazene is a new synthetic opioid from the benzimidazole derivative family. Nitazenes have analgesic power " 500 times higher than morphine and slightly higher than fentanyl“.
• Heroin : A health alert in Ile-de-France has reported samples of heroin cut with synthetic cannabinoids, as well as products sold as heroin but containing only these synthetic cannabinoids. “Unprecedented non-conformities”, according to the Sintes report. The latter also notes that the vast majority of heroin samples conform to consumers' expectations and are usually adulterated.
• Pink Cocaine : The product has been widely publicized but it remains a minority in the collections of the Sintes 2023 system. This pink cocaine is also called 2C-B, tucibi, tuci, tussi, coke-rose, pink cocaine, Nexus. It is composed of ketamine and MDMA, the proportions of which vary.

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The Sintes Point identifies the "weak signals" every year

“Treat Sintes data with caution”. The warning appears on the first pages of the report. Samples are only collected in specific situations: users experiencing unexpected or undesirable side effects, or for "to remove doubts about the composition of products", ask the collectors of Sintes to have them analyzed. It must be understood that the number of samples collected remains insufficient to provide an exact picture of the contents and compositions of the products in circulation on a national level. This system essentially identifies " weak signals"This is not an exhaustive survey. This monitoring tool nevertheless allows the various stakeholders involved in preventing risks linked to drug consumption to be alerted.