The highest court of France has revoked the prohibition of the trade and use of raw cannabidiol flowers and cannabis leaves. CBD flowers come from the marijuana plant and do not have intoxicating traits. As per the court, the banned items had no narcotic properties, so those products could be traded and used in France.
This legal development does not apply to every cannabis plant, but it blurs the laws about the trade of marijuana derivatives even more. The change in CBD laws may trigger the return of a booming cannabis market. It was in 2020 that the market was taken off.
When the French government introduced the ban in December last year, it claimed that police could not visually tell real cannabis and cannabidiol apart. However, the court stated that there had been serious doubt about the legal status of the CBD ban considering that the flower product contained under 0.3% THC. For the uninitiated, THC is the most active psychotropic compound in cannabis.
The judge stated that the THC threshold meant that it is possible to legally sell the leaves and flowers in question. Gerald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior, expressed his regret over the court decision through the radio channel France Inter.
As for Darmanin, every substance associated with cannabis and drugs is not good for human health. Darmanin also said that the rate of tobacco has not been increased to €10 for accepting the decriminalization or legalization of cannabis.
France Still Has Strict Cannabis Rules
Despite the revoked ban, the rules about the cultivation, trade, and use of cannabis are unchanged in France. The nation only allows hemp growers to cultivate various strictly controlled herbs that come in a formal catalogue.
The trade of hemp leaves and flowers to people aged less than 18 years is banned as a precautionary measure since health authorities claim that those teens know little about cannabidiol.
CBD products like creams, resins, gummies, cereal bars, and oils remain authorized for sale here, but only under some conditions. Sellers and producers cannot make any claims about CBD’s therapeutic qualities as the French National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products still examines the medical application of cannabis.
Black market cannabis has 26.5% of THC content on average for hashish, and 11% for grass, according to French Observatory for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT) statements.