France’s highest appeals court recently overturned a ruling that prohibited stores from legally selling cannabidiol (CBD) products.
The Cour de cassation based its ruling on the decision by the European Court of Justice, which ruled that France’s ban on the sale of CBD products was illegal because CBD has neither a “psychotropic effect nor negative effect on human health.” The European Court ruled no national law can ban the sale of CBD legally produced in a member state.
“Without considering whether the substances seized had not been legally produced in another member state of the European Union, the court failed to provide a basis for its decision,” according to a ruling of a lower appeals court.
The France Ministry of Health and Solidarity recently gave approval for medical cannabis testing to begin in the country. Tests have been approved for up to 3,000 people in France, who will be tested in a controlled environment in a study that is expected to last up to two years. Doctors have started enrolling their patients into the experiment, with some doctors only expecting a few patients to enroll.
“Patients are really eager to get these products. They know they are available in other countries and some of them have been abroad to get them,” Didier Bouhassira, neurologist and pain specialist at the Ambroise Paré hospital, said. “Many patients are asking for cannabis. They are impatient for this experiment.”Although cannabis use is illegal in France, the country shares the highest consumption rate in Europe with Spain, with 11 percent of their populations reporting cannabis use in the last year, as of 2019. Of those who reported cannabis use in France, 27 percent were in the 18-25 age group, with five percent of the same age group reported consuming cannabis everyday.
