The French Council of State has suspended the decree banning the sale of CBD flowers.
The French Council of State (Conseil d’État) has declared that the ban on the sale of CBD flowers will be suspended. The decision follows direct action by CBD industry bodies which mobilised to obtain a suspension of the new ban.
CBD industry bodies, including The Syndicat du Chanvre (The Professional Hemp Union), L630, the Union des Professionnels du CBD and others, have said that the decree, banning the sale of CBD flowers, would put the entire CBD sector at a disadvantage and would deprive consumers of a product which they need.
Éric Juilliat, CEO of French Swiss Hemp, launched a petition against the decree which has collected nearly 40,000 signatures.
Speaking to Cannabis Wealth, he commented: “While waiting for the Council of State to rule definitively on the merits of the legality of the contested decree, the judge in chambers temporarily suspends the contested ban.
“The lights are green again for CBD. And the State is condemned to pay 1000 euros to each party. A slap for Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior and the Interministerial Mission for the Fight against Drugs and Addictive Behaviors (Mildeca) caught in the act of legal inconsistency and ideological amalgamation.
“We have just won the first battle, but the war is still long.
“We have to organize a whole network, in order to be consistent with our State. I wanted to thank all those who participated in the petition because it added to the fight of lawyers, unions and jurists who pleaded before the Council of State.
“My friends, let us all be united for the organization of this new sector.”
“We are delighted that the rule of law has prevailed over the arbitrariness and authoritarianism of a prohibition that is as absurd as it is counterproductive,” commented Charles Morel, president of the Union of CBD Professionals to Cannabis Wealth.
Read more: France sees united front against new hemp decree
France implemented article R. 5132-86 of the French Public Health Code on December 30, 2021. The decree regulates hemp products including imports and exports, cultivation, sales and commercial use.
This was largely welcomed as a move that gave a new certainty to the industry – but came with the shocking blow that CBD flower sales would be banned.
Although farmers no longer have to destroy their crops and extracts can be sold – small shops would be largely impacted and the European Industrial Hemp Association has highlighted the impact it will have on the CBD leaf market.
The ban, made on health grounds following the publication of two small studies suggesting the dangers of CBD were unknown and linking its use to unemployment, is in opposition to the 2020 ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).
It ruled that CBD is not a narcotic and EU Member States may not ban the marketing of CBD when extracted from the whole plant.
The decree is also in direct contradiction to a new ruling made by France’s Constitutional Council on the definition of a narcotic. The ruling declared that a substance must be both toxic and addictive to be classed as a narcotic – a definition which CBD would not fall under according to the CJEU ruling.
Read more: New narcotics ruling in France raises further questions on CBD decree
Speaking to Cannabis Wealth, Benjamin-Alexandre Jeanroy, co-founder and CEO at Paris-based Augur Associates, commented: “This is not the end of it but it is a step in the right direction.
“It is still a provisional judgment, so, it could take up to four or five months for a final decision. What is good is that in the meanwhile, people can get back to business – it’s definitely a win, but it’s not the end.
“There are several possibilities on what could come next. Either the government will try to find a way to act on the issue of disproportionality of the rule. For example, a couple of weeks ago, the Government said we need to have masks obligatory outside in Paris everywhere again – the Council of State annulled that decree because it said it was disproportionate. So, the government came back and said, the mask is obligatory outside in crowded places, in lines, in places where you have a lot of people.
“But, there’s another option – they could decide to wait for the final decision and put the issue back under the carpet for after the elections.
“If we wanted to have something smart coming out of it this could be an excellent occasion to create a fairly agile and light system of distribution licenses – we could build upon the existing ecosystem and structure it and regulate it.
“That would be great but I don’t think that is what’s going to happen.
“In this game, you’re taking the wins when they come, because it’s never a “long fleuve tranquille” as we say in French – a long tranquil river – it is never like this. A win is always welcome and it’s great for small shops and small producers that want to sell to direct consumers. Prohibition itself would be quite hard to enforce.
Read more: Italy passes decree that could put CBD farmers at risk of jail
“We have seen that they have tried to do it in 2018 – closing the shops – so we do know that a lot of people change their website server to outside of France and a lot of smaller shops took the flowers out from shops, some closed.
“But hopefully it will create a bit more stability for the upcoming months. But we’re still at the mercy of another political ruling whether coming from France or coming from Europeans institutions since France is at the head of the Council of Europe.”
Béchir Saket, co-founder and spokesperson of L630, said: “Our victory is historic! Once again, the government policy is seen as contrary to the law, to our fundamental principles and values.”
On its website, L630, stated: “The cannabidiol epic has not finished making ink flow. The Council of State issued a historic decision a few moments ago to suspend the government’s ban on the sale, marketing and use of CBD flowers.
“L630 welcomes and salutes all the players involved, first and foremost the Union of CBD Professionals and the Hemp Syndicate. The organisation recalls its involvement in these appeals and the mobilisation, for days, of its teams to deepen memories and do substantial advocacy work.
“It is now up to the government, before the judge’s response in the merits of the case, to change gear and take new measures to co-construct with civil society and the actors involved a different regulation” [translated from Google].
[activecampaign form=31]
