A 22-year-old man who was hospitalised recently after years of smoking vapes containing HHC has said he thought he was dying when he started to experience withdrawal symptoms.
HHC is a semi-synthetic cannabinoid which is stronger than cannabis and has been illegal in Ireland since last year.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Liveline, Jakub said he was taken to hospital by ambulance after suffering heart palpitations, vomiting, leg cramps and a highly increased heart rate.
“I thought I was dying, to be honest I didn’t think I was going to make it through,” he said. “I didn’t think those vapes could have caused something like that.
“I was afraid for my life, I really was, I didn’t know what was going on with me.”
Jakub said he was introduced to HHC vapes four years ago by his friend.
He said that they are “too easy” to buy and that they “are everywhere”.
He said it got so bad that he was not getting anywhere in life, he was sitting at home vaping all of the time.
“After work, it was the first thing I would do, I would grab a vape. On my day off, from the minute I woke up until the second I went to bed, I was smoking the vapes. They just take over your life to be honest, they’re no good.”
He said he could not go a day without them, that he would get mood swings and he would get angry.
Jakub said he started off smoking normal cannabis and then he realised that the HHC vapes were in circulation so he started to buy them.
Listen: ‘From the minute I woke up to the second I went to bed, I was smoking vapes. They just take over your life’
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Jakub said that listening to RTÉ’s coverage on the dangers of smoking HHC vapes was a contributing factor to his decision to quit, but when he tried to stop, he ended up in hospital.
“To be honest, all them podcasts youse made, they were one of the reasons as well, I had to stop. They kind of opened me eyes up after listening to them… and that’s when I realised right this is getting too much, these are dangerous.
“I had serious withdrawals. The first day I was projectile vomiting. It wasn’t too bad, let’s say a few times during the day.
“Then the second day was non-stop, all day getting sick. I rang my GP and he prescribed me [anti] nausea medication, but that didn’t help either.
“And then the same thing on day three, and then on day four I was getting full body cramps. I was sweating, it’s like I was as wet as coming out of a shower.
“And that was the day I got sent into the hospital then because I couldn’t stand up on my own two feet. My legs were cramping up, I’d take two steps and then I’d end up falling on to the ground.”
‘These vapes are no joke’
He said he was now at home recovering from the ordeal.
“Kids really need to open their eyes and realise these vapes are no joke.”
Jakub said he would go through about two-and-a-half vapes a week and that they cost between €50 and €60 each, “so I’d be spending €180 a week sometimes”.
He said that although he is working, he has run up a credit card debt over using the vapes because they took over his life.
He said it had an impact on his family, and that he fell out with his parents and his young brother when he was using the HHC vapes.
“I kind of felt like I let him (his brother) down, as I was in my own head, I was stoned all the time.
“I didn’t really care, it puts you into that mindset of not caring. You just don’t really care about anything. It’s kind of like ‘it is what it is’.”
Jakub said his parents had an idea about what was going on because while he was using the HHC vapes, they could see that something wasn’t right.
“I would have puffy eyes walking around the house, I was always drowsy, I had a bit of a slurred speech.
“So they knew something was up but they couldn’t put a finger on it and I kept denying it because, you know yourself, I was ashamed. You don’t want to really tell your parents that you’re addicted to drugs.
“This stuff needs to be gone, it’s a joke, you can get it anywhere. And the thing is that when I was getting this in the shop, there were kids there.
“They looked 14, 15 and they were coming in and they weren’t even getting ID’d for these vapes. They were getting them handed over the counter.
Getting vapes ‘on tick’
“And the sickest thing is the people who were selling these vapes would write your name down in a booklet if you didn’t have the money and you could come in next week and pay the money and you could get another vape on tick.”
Jakub said that even though he had been discharged from hospital, he was still on medication for nausea, for his heart and he is also on pain killers for the next two weeks.
“When I was picked up by the ambulance, my heart rate was at 185 beats per minute, so for all I know, I could have been on the verge of a heart attack.”
He said his goal is to be a personal trainer and that he feels he would have that qualification by now if it had not been for his vaping addiction.
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