North: traffic alert for "Buddha blues", a synthetic drug, in a high school

Europe 1 with AFP 6:45 p.m., April 8, 2022

The principal of a high school in Fourmies (Nord) has issued an alert to parents of students about the circulation within his establishment of "Buddha blues", a synthetic cannabis, after the hospitalization of two students, a-t - we learned Friday from the rectorate.

"A product called Buddha blues, also called PTC 'fart your skull', is currently circulating throughout the Sambre-Avesnois-Thiérache territory", warned the principal, in his letter to parents dated April 4 and revealed by

.

Multiple health risks

It is "a synthetic chemical substance that causes the effects of THC, the psychotropic molecule of cannabis", he explains.

This product is consumed "as a liquid additive in electronic cigarettes".

Highlighting "the extreme toxicity of this narcotic", the principal cites among its effects "respiratory distress", "severe headaches", "tachycardia", "crisis of paranoia", "paralysis" or even "hallucinations".

According to the rectorate, the principal "preferred to go quickly" to educate parents, after "two hospitalizations in the last 15 days" of high school students from his establishment who had used this drug.

But "at the level of the academy, no other case has been reported", including from the fifteen or so establishments in the same sector as the Fourmies high school, directly contacted by the rectorate, added the latter. .

On the initiative of the principal, a preventive intervention will be carried out at the start of the spring holidays in order to raise awareness among the pupils.

This synthetic drug, sold in liquid or powder form, has been circulating sporadically for several years in schools in France.

During one of the first alerts made public, in an establishment in Brest, the narcotics brigade of Finistère had notably reported "crises of paranoia" among teenagers who consumed this product described as "highly dangerous".