The judges have retained two cumulative criteria for saying that a product is a staggering: “dependence” and the “harmful effects for health”. Two conditions that do not meet CBD products, according to professionals in this sector.
Le Monde with AFP
The Constitutional Council clarified, Friday, January 7, the criteria for the definition of a staggering product. It considers in particular that cannabidiol products (CBD) – the non-psychotropic molecule of cannabis – including the flower, do not fall within the scope of this definition. This decision rejoices professionals in the sector.
The term “amazing” means a psychotropic substance that is characterized by a “risk of dependence” and “harmful effects for health”, according to the decision of the judges, which answered a priority question of constitutionality posed by the French association of cannabinoid producers.
The Constitutional Council rejected the request of the latter, but took advantage of two cumulative criteria to define a narcotic: “habituation” and “harmful effects for health”, “says Frédéric Scanvic, lawyer. applicant. The judges added that it “belongs to the administrative authority, under the control of the judge”, to classify certain substances in the category of narcotics “according to the evolution of the state of scientific and medical knowledge”.
Now, “We will argue that these criteria are not completed regarding the CBD,” Ensures the Agency France-Press Yann Bisiou, Lecturer at Montpellier-III University and Founder of the Association L630, which defends a reform of public drug policies in France. Mr. Bisiou states that the opinions of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the World Health Organization converge towards “a lack of risks” of the CBD molecule.
Prohibition of the Sale of hemp flowers
“We are rather satisfied with this decision,” says Aurélien Delecroix, the president of the professional hemp union.
The decision is made after the Government prohibits by order, Friday, December 31, the trade and consumption of hemp flowers and leaves – which contain CBD -, which has plunged producers, distributors and consumers in the Disarray.
Xavier Pizarro, a lawyer at the Barreau de Marseille, asked for referred to the State Council the suspension of this text and intends to rely on the decision of the Constitutional Council. “By pointing to the criteria that do not exist in positive law, the Constitutional Council has redone the criticism we have formulated,” he says.
European judges had recalled in 2020 that in the difference of tetrahydrocannabinol, cannabis molecule with psychoactive effects, the CBD can not be considered a narcost, since it has “no psychotropic effects or (…) harmful effect on human health “.
“Scientific studies have shown that the CBD acted on the brain on the receptors with dopamine and serotonin, thus making it a full psychoactive product”, instead, judged the interdepartmental mission to fight against Drugs and addictive pipelines on December 31, including possible “sedation and somnolence” effects.