The government is tightening the screws on industrial and commercial use of CBD. This non-psychotropic cannabis molecule, to which relaxing properties are attributed, is currently in full swing. But a decree published in the Official Journal on Friday, December 31, now prohibits the sale to consumers of flowers or raw leaves for smoking or herbal tea. “The sale to consumers of raw flowers or leaves in all their forms, alone or in combination with other ingredients, their possession by consumers and their consumption” is prohibited, thus details the text.
Furthermore, “cultivation, import, export and industrial and commercial use” are only allowed for “varieties of Cannabis sativa L.”. The hemp plant must have a content of tetrahydrocannabinol – THC, the psychotropic molecule – which does not exceed 0.3%, against 0.2% in the draft decree published in July 2021. These varieties, in addition, must be listed in the common catalog of varieties of agricultural plants or in the official catalog of species and varieties of plants cultivated in France. And the flowers and leaves of these varieties “may only be harvested, imported or used for the industrial production of hemp extracts”, details the decree.
The purchase of hemp flowers and leaves produced on French territory must be the subject of a written contract between producer and buyer, established before the start of the production campaign. In addition, products made from hemp “may not be imported from countries outside the European Union or exported outside the European Union unless they are accompanied by documents attesting to their conformity”. Finally, the sale of seedlings and the practice of cuttings are prohibited. “Only active farmers within the meaning of the European and national regulations in force can cultivate hemp flowers and leaves”.
The French authorities have closed dozens of shops selling this “light cannabis” in recent years, but they have come up against European regulations, which allow it. This decree has been notified to the European Commission. It revises a text of 1990 and follows a judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union in November 2020. European justice then rejected the ban on this “cannabis light”, also called “well-being hemp” in France, by emphasizing the harmlessness of this molecule, which could not therefore be considered as a narcotic or a drug. She also argued that the free movement of goods within the EU applied to CBD.
On June 23, the Court of Cassation ruled that CBD could be sold in France if it was produced in another European country. But he did not settle the substantive issue of a marketing ban in the name of the objective of protecting public health.