HHC is hexahydrocannabinol, and the quickest way to understand it is to count hydrogens. PubChem lists delta-9 THC as C21H30O2 and HHC as C21H32O2: the same carbon skeleton with two more hydrogen atoms, 316.5 g/mol against 314.5. It is made by hydrogenating CBD or delta-9 THC in a reactor, not harvested from hemp in any meaningful quantity. Canna River no longer makes or sells HHC products. This page is kept as a factual reference, including the part most pages about HHC leave out: what it does to a THC drug test.
The chemistry, in one reaction
THC's name comes from "tetrahydro" — four added hydrogens on the ring system, with one carbon-carbon double bond remaining. Hydrogenation saturates that last double bond by adding H2 across it, and the prefix goes from tetrahydro to hexahydro. That is the entire structural difference.
| Compound | PubChem CID | Formula | Molecular weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cannabidiol (CBD) | 644019 | C21H30O2 | 314.5 g/mol |
| Delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) | 16078 | C21H30O2 | 314.5 g/mol |
| Hexahydrocannabinol (HHC) | 16050328 | C21H32O2 | 316.5 g/mol |
Removing that double bond is also why HHC is more stable to heat and oxidation than THC: a saturated ring has nothing left to oxidize at that position. Chemically this is a small change. Analytically, as the next two sections show, it is anything but.
It is not one molecule. It is two
Saturating the double bond creates a new stereocentre at carbon 9, so hydrogenation produces a mixture of two epimers: (9R)-HHC and (9S)-HHC. A 2024 paper in Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry by Bottinelli and colleagues developed and validated separate mass-spectrometry methods to tell them apart in seized material, whole blood and oral fluid, because a single "HHC" figure does not describe what is actually in a sample. The same paper notes that HHC has been described since the 1940s but that "limited toxicology data, pharmacological understanding, and analytical methods for HHC exist."
So anyone who tells you precisely how HHC behaves is going beyond what has been published. That is a statement about the evidence base, not a verdict on the compound.
What HHC does to a THC urine test
This is the practical question, and two peer-reviewed studies from 2025 answer it with numbers.
In Forensic Toxicology, Tsujikawa and colleagues spiked human urine with each epimer of HHC's main urinary metabolite, 11-nor-9-carboxy-HHC, at 20 to 500 ng/mL, and ran it through three commercial panel tests set to a 50 ng/mL cutoff for the THC metabolite. Both epimers triggered positives on all three tests. The 9β form was the more reactive, reading positive from 50 to 100 ng/mL, while the 9α form needed 100 to 500 ng/mL. Its glucuronide conjugates appeared to cross-react too. The authors' conclusion is blunt: users of urinary THC panel tests "should pay attention to false positives potentially caused by HHC metabolites."
The second study runs in the opposite direction and is, if anything, more surprising. Writing in the Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, Grapp and colleagues analyzed 599 forensic serum samples: 574 positive for delta-9 THC only, 19 for both, and 6 for HHC only. In the HHC-positive samples, (9R)-HHC-COOH ran from 1.0 to 314 ng/mL. But it was also "unambiguously detected" in samples positive for delta-9 THC alone — meaning the body appears to produce that metabolite from ordinary THC as well. Their conclusion: detecting HHC-COOH epimers on its own "cannot prove prior HHC consumption," and they tentatively propose a 30% (9R)-HHC-COOH to THC-COOH ratio in serum to tell the two intakes apart.
Put together: a standard THC panel cannot distinguish HHC from THC, and a laboratory needs a ratio, not just a detection, to say which one someone took.
Why Canna River stopped selling it
Canna River sold HHC vapes and tinctures in 2022 and 2023 and discontinued the whole category. The company's FAQ states it plainly: Canna River no longer sells HHC products, and it is not coming back. The current range is built on hemp-derived CBD with CBN, CBG and CBC, with a published batch report for each lot — 677 of them in the library as of October 25, 2026.
If you landed here from an old HHC product page, there is no equivalent product to point you to, and we are not going to invent one. What we can offer instead is the documentation: how to find the lab report for any batch, and what CBD, CBN, CBG and CBC actually are.
Frequently asked questions
Is HHC natural or synthetic?
Commercially it is synthetic. The 2024 Bottinelli paper describes HHC as "derived from synthetic production using cannabidiol (CBD) or delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol." Trace amounts have been described in the plant, but not at a scale anyone extracts.
Will HHC show up on a drug test?
Published evidence says its metabolite cross-reacts with standard urinary THC panel tests. In the 2025 Tsujikawa study, both epimers of HHC-COOH produced positives on three commercial panels at a 50 ng/mL cutoff.
Does Canna River sell HHC?
No. It no longer makes or sells any HHC product.
What is the difference between HHC and THC?
Two hydrogen atoms. HHC is C21H32O2 and delta-9 THC is C21H30O2; hydrogenation saturates THC's remaining carbon-carbon double bond and creates two epimers in the process.
Why does HHC last longer on a shelf than THC?
Because the double bond that oxidation attacks is gone. Saturated compounds are generally more stable to heat and air, which is the same reason hydrogenation is used in food chemistry.
Canna River products are intended for adults 21 and over. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.
