Upon discovering the decision of the Council of State, which temporarily suspended the government decree prohibiting the sale of hemp flower loaded with CBD, traders in the sector gave a big “phew” of relief. In the ranks of the police, the reaction was very different: “For the profession, this is very bad news, assures a police officer. With this decision, it is a bad message that we are sending. »
When you have two cannabis flowers in front of you, knowing which one has less than 0.3% THC and which has more is very complicated.
What worries field agents is the difficulty they will have, during checks, in differentiating between a legal cannabis flower, with a THC content, the molecule that causes psychoactive effects, of less than 0.3 %, and illegal cannabis flower, where the rate can sometimes reach 20-25%. “When you have two cannabis flowers in front of you, knowing which has less than 0.3% THC and which has more is very complicated, reports Christophe Gras, from the Alliance union in Bordeaux. They are the same, they are strictly identical. »
Untangling the real from the fake
Agent of the Anti-Crime Squad (Bac) in urban areas, Clément* regularly checks people suspected of using cannabis on public roads. According to him, the authorization of the CBD will not fundamentally change his daily life: “In general, young people in the neighborhood stay with illegal cannabis, which they do business and which they consume, he notes. CBD is found more often in young people from other neighborhoods. »
The fact remains that at the time of the control, the police officer is quite unable to disentangle the true from the false when the individual claims to consume CBD and not illegal cannabis, for which he can collect a fixed fine: “In this case, either we play confidence in the interlocutor, or we do not have confidence and we bring him back to the police station to do a test, ”he says.
Police station test
In the field, agents only have one way to be certain of the product consumed: the saliva test. “A person who has consumed CBD can only be positive if they have abused it, which can happen, notes Clément. Normally at 0.2% THC the test is not expected to be positive. But that’s the theory…” Beyond their reliability, these saliva tests have another problem: they can only be carried out if the suspect is driving. “If it’s a pedestrian, we can’t justify a saliva test,” continues Clément. To be fixed, it must be brought back to the police station. »
There, a chemical test, carried out on the cannabis flower, “allows to know its THC content”. Are the cases of CBD consumers brought to the police station while they are legal not likely to multiply? “These are long procedures, which require resources, it’s very restrictive”, breathes Christophe Gras. The union representative hopes that instructions will be given quickly to avoid situations that could prove costly and time-consuming.
*Name has been changed