A company named Kanavape, whose CBD was extracted from hemp in the Czech Republic (in accordance with both Czech and EU law), exported their products to France in 2014. They were prosecuted in a country where the only thing that is legit is the plant’s fiber and seeds (products made from the entire plant or flower are outlawed and have been even before regulators in Brussels changed the catalogue for Novel Food, apparently to reflect the French interpretation of the same as of 2019).
However, like the plucky Gaulish village of the resistance (Asterix anyone?), these Czech cannapreneurs have appealed all the way through the French court of Appeals in Aix-en-Provence, to the European Union’s Court of Justice. The principle at stake? Whether France’s restriction on hemp products violated the free movement of goods principle – a critical part of the EU covenant itself.
According to the Court of Justice’s advocate general’s decision last week, hemp-derived CBD (even from the flowers and leaves of the plant) is not a narcotic. Ergo, it is protected by the EU’s free movement principle. Per the Advocate General Evgeni Tanchev, the French CBD ban is not appropriate or proportionate for the purpose of protecting public health.
Read more at internationalcbc.com