While hemp is booming in the European Union (EU), France continues to play the refractory by wanting to ban the trade of CBD flowers on its territory. Reaction has been swift.
On Wednesday July 21, the French government informed the European Commission of changes to the 1990 decree governing the cultivation and marketing of hemp in France. Despite numerous exchanges between the Syndicat Professionnel du Chanvre (SPC) and the main players in the hemp and well-being sector, France has announced its intention to ban the sale and consumption of hemp flowers in France. This ignores the CJEU ruling that legalized the trade in CBD flowers in the EU, and the idea that European law takes precedence over French law.
Matignon and Bauveau vs Europe
To justify this decision, the government cited a“public order imperative“. The“public health” reasonfirst put forward was buried, as it did not hold water.
This is very bad news for the CBD trade in France, whose players are simply asking for the law to be respected; that is, to classify CBD flowers as a “smoking plant”, following the example of the Belgians or Luxembourgers.
By depriving France of the trade in flowering tops, the government is depriving the profession of a significant part of the revenue generated by the industry, since of the two billion euros in sales recorded, half comes from the sale of flowers.
Vain combat
By persisting with prohibition, France is also persisting with incoherence: how can we prevent the sale of CBD flowers from other EU countries where these products are legal? Hemp flowers can continue to be exported without fear to France from any Schengen member state where they are legally produced. Foreign companies can feast: by excluding themselves from the competition, France offers them its market on a platter.
Against a backdrop of health and economic crisis, denying a future to half of France’s CBD industry (and its billion-euro revenues) is bound to come as a surprise.
Some see the all-out anti-hemp policy pursued over the past year as an electoral ploy.
The decree, if approved for publication in the Journal Officiel, could only come into force in six months’ time, i.e. in January 2022
Four months before the presidential elections.
