Paris (AFP)

Driven by the "well-being" wave and a recent favorable decision from European justice, more and more shops are popping up in France to sell products based on CBD, the non-psychotropic molecule of cannabis to which are attributed relaxing virtues.

According to the Professional Hemp Union (SPC), the country has nearly 400, almost four times more than before the summer of 2018 and the wave of closures ordered by the authorities.

Since then, on November 19, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled illegal the ban on CBD decreed in France, contrary to other countries on the continent, in the name of the free movement of goods.

She also considered that it had no psychotropic or harmful effect on health, and that it could not be considered as a narcotic or a medicine.

Less than a month later, Tomany Macalou opened his shop in Paris.

"I was aware that the decision was going to come. As soon as that was the case, it reassured me, I went," he told AFP in his store.

On its shelves, CBD-based products: sublingual oils, teas, coffee, herbal teas, sweets, cosmetics, food supplements, e-cigarettes or flowers, to smoke or infuse.

In search of a new professional project, the young man turned to CBD, a still young market in France compared to those in Great Britain, the United States or Switzerland.

According to the SPC, it currently weighs 150 to 200 million euros and could reach one billion euros by 2023, if the legal vagueness that surrounds it is lifted.

- New customers -

The leading European hemp producer, France bans, under a 1990 narcotics decree, the use of the plant's leaves and flowers, which contain CBD.

It only authorizes the cultivation and marketing of fibers and seeds, if their THC content (the psychotropic molecule) is less than 0.2%.

Despite these restrictions, CBD has more and more followers, such as Thomas Leclair, who came to buy the flower, to "smoke fewer cigarettes", and tea.

"I find it pleasant and relaxing. I also bought oils to put under the tongue: my + roommate + told me that it helped her to (relieve) her pain when she had her period", continues this thirty-year-old architect. .

Tomany Macalou abounds: some push his door to "lower their blood pressure or solve their insomnia problem".

A new clientele, different from those coming to the CBD "via the recreational cannabis entry (narcotic)", underlines Aurélien Delecroix, the president of the SPC.

"Another audience is going to CBD to be less stressed, to sleep better. Not because they want to smoke something with less THC or because it's funny."

To attract these new users, some vendors have dressed their shops in clothes that make them look more like pharmacies or organic grocery stores than the famous Amsterdam "coffee shops".

"I have + senior + clients who say they come to me because they are reassured by the environment. They would not go to other more darker shops", explains Jonathan Msika, an executive in the pharmaceutical industry for more than twenty years. years before turning to CBD.

- Legal uncertainty -

Two and a half years after the turn of the screw of summer 2018, "the context is radically different", summarizes Aurélien Delecroix.

"At the time, the proximity to recreational cannabis greatly damaged the image of the sector. Shops or clubs, by their communication, could fall under the law for justifying the consumption or trafficking of drugs, illegal exercise of the profession of pharmacist or medicine, ”he explains.

However, recent examples have shown that the legal vagueness surrounding CBD can still lead to prosecution.

Thus the two Marseille promoters of "Kanavape", an electronic hemp cigarette, sentenced to eighteen and fifteen months suspended prison sentence and at the origin of the decision of the CJEU condemning France.

"If you run a shop that doesn't bother the mayor, you have good relations with the police, does educational work with the authorities and the prosecutor is not on horseback (on the law), that will pass ", said M. Delecroix," otherwise, you could risk a lot ".

He calls for changes in regulations, such as the parliamentary information mission on the uses of cannabis in a report published on Wednesday.

© 2021 AFP