The legal vagueness surrounding CBD is slowly dissipating.
On Tuesday, the Court of Cassation rendered a judgment in the context of an appeal relating to the legality of the sale of CBD-based products in a specialist store in Dijon.
While the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) had established last November that France could not prohibit this sale because CBD is a "
non-narcotic
" product, the decision of the highest French court was particularly awaited.
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However, where the CJEU relies on the “
non-narcotic
” character (that is to say the low level of THC they contain) of products to decide on their legality, the Court of Cassation develops another argument.
Based on the decree of August 22, 1990, it establishes that CBD shoots can be authorized for sale if they are of a certain variety: cannabis Sativa L. This alone will therefore be authorized for marketing.
Different criteria
The Court of Cassation also recalls that it is up to the police authorities, via tests, to determine whether the marketed product is illegal.
“
The prohibition, even provisional, of the marketing of products containing cannabidiol could not be ordered in the absence of proof that the products in question fell within the category of narcotic products,
” thus wrote the Court.
Read also: Cannabis: France will authorize CBD products and ban the sale of flowers
“
One would have expected that the Court of Cassation would take into account the decision of the CJEU, but this is not the case. The Kanavap judgment [rendered by the CJEU] could nevertheless have benefited from a clarification of the French jurisdiction,
”considers the lawyer Ingrid Metton, specialist in the medical cannabis file. Indeed, many first instance courts were seized on similar cases and had to deal with the judgment of the CJEU. From now on, they will also have to take into account that of the Court of Cassation in case law.