• The files of CBD consumers tested positive for narcotics by the police are accumulating at a Lille lawyer.

  • Tests used by law enforcement can actually react to CBD products that contain a tiny percentage of THC.

  • Brought to justice, these cases confirm a legal vagueness around the detection of narcotics.

CBD looks like cannabis, it smells and tastes like it, but it's not cannabis.

If the first is legal the other is not, if the first has relaxing effects the other is considered a psychotropic, both have the common point of being able to bring you before a court.

According to a lawyer from Lille, the cases of motorists consuming CBD having had their license suspended after a positive saliva test are less and less rare.

“It's not really new since we have been seeing cases of this type for 2 or 3 years.

But the last eight months, we have returned a lot of files from people whose license has been suspended for this reason, ”assures Me Antoine Régley, lawyer at the Lille bar.

A lot means several dozen for his cabinet alone.

We let you imagine the extent of the problem at the national level, and this for more than six years.

Because before 2016, the question did not arise: "It was at this time that narcotics screening tests were passed to saliva, no longer allowing the rate to be determined but only the presence of THC", continues the lawyer.

"The characterization of the offense was lacking"

And this is where the shoe pinches since it is only the determination of the THC level that makes it possible to differentiate a CBD consumer from a cannabis consumer.

Certainly, many sites specializing in the sale of CBD try to reassure their customers by ensuring that a positive screening after taking their products is a rare occurrence.

Rare, but not impossible.

With the new regulations, dating from last December, authorizing CBD products containing up to 0.3% THC, law enforcement tests tend to panic.

This is evidenced by the conclusions of an expert report from the National Forensic Science Service (SNPS) that

20 Minutes

was able to consult: “The consumption of this type of product can lead to the detection of THC in the blood or saliva of a consumer provided that this product contains THC” we explain.

So how do you prove your good faith in court?

Until recently, it was rather complicated.

“We came up against the resistance of the judges and their lack of knowledge of the CBD.

Except that this should soon change, the Douai Court of Appeal going in our direction in a recent case, ”says Maître Régley.

The latter also obtained a release last May, the court having concluded that "the characterization of the offense is lacking" since the product consumed by the defendant was legal.

The problem for the court is to prove the guilt of the defendant against his good faith, for lack of possible second opinion of the test, destroyed, and for lack of spending public funds on blood tests, if the time allows it.



There is therefore indeed a “legal vagueness” which should benefit CBD consumers.

The downside to this is that it could also benefit weed smokers.

And the solutions of the authorities are relatively limited to avoid penalizing the innocent without letting the offenders run.

"Banning CBD or including it on the list of narcotics would come up against a veto from Europe," said the lawyer.

The only effective way would therefore be to modify the decree of December 13, 2016 which “considers that the presence of THC in the blood or saliva testifies to the use of a narcotic”.

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