Dried CBD flowers, photo taken on February 16, 2022 in Paris (AFP/Archives/JOEL SAGET)
The Council of State definitively lifted on Thursday the ban on the sale of the flower and the hemp leaf loaded with cannabidiol (CBD), the non-psychotropic molecule of cannabis, cutting the grass under the feet of the government which had it banned at the end of 2021.
The government had by interministerial decree authorized on December 30, 2021 the sale of products containing CBD with a THC content (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychotropic molecule) less than or equal to 0.3%, but prohibited at the same time the sale of the flowers and leaves of this same cannabis with a very low dosage of THC.
Contacted by AFP, the Interministerial Mission for the Fight against Drugs and Drug Addiction (Mildeca) did not wish to react immediately.
The Council of State judged on the merits “disproportionate the general and absolute prohibition of marketing in the raw state” of this substance.
CBD flowers and leaves come like regular cannabis, usually in the form of a dried green plant ready to be crumbled and smoked.
But unlike traditional cannabis, which contains THC, CBD, which can already be sold in the form of oil or herbal tea, is no longer considered, even in its smokable form, as a psychotropic by French justice.
– “Rapid tests” –
Presentation of CBD-related products, May 21, 2022 in Paris (AFP/Archives/Emmanuel DUNAND)
France’s highest court found in its decision that the sale of CBD in the form of leaves and flowers does not “create a risk to public health” that could justify its ban. “In the state of scientific data, the harmfulness of other molecules present in cannabis flowers and leaves, in particular CBD, has not been established.”
The Council of State also argues that CBD has, according to scientific data, “decontracting and relaxing properties and anticonvulsant effects, but has no psychotropic effect and does not cause addiction”.
On the argument of the impossibility for the police to differentiate between plants with or without “narcotic properties” in the event of an inspection, which would compromise the fight against narcotics, the Council of State considered that the THC level “could be checked by means of rapid tests”.
By definitively deciding on the legal vagueness around this substance which began to be introduced in France in 2014, the Council of State allows the launch of an economically sustainable hemp sector in France, according to representatives of the sector.
In November 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled illegal the banning of CBD in France, authorized in several other European countries, in the name of the principle of free movement of goods.
The Cour de cassation, the highest court in the French judiciary, followed suit, ruling in June that any CBD legally produced in the EU could be sold in France.
“This new legal victory confirms our idea and above all will allow an entire sector to develop with the necessary visibility”, reacted to AFP the Professional Union of Hemp, one of the applicants.
France had some 2,000 CBD shops at the end of 2022, according to the Professional Hemp Syndicate (SPC).
The turnover of the sector is estimated by the unions at 500 million euros, of which more than half for the flower alone.
© 2022 AFP
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