• Sébastien Beguerie and Antonin Cohen, founders of the Marseille company Kanavape, are summoned this Wednesday afternoon before the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal.

  • She has to say whether CBD is considered a narcotic product in France or not.

  • Seized beforehand, the European Court of Justice ruled in November 2020 that the ban on CBD in France was illegal.

The end of seven years of legal battles for the pioneers of CBD in France? Sébastien Beguerie and Antonin Cohen, founders of the Marseille company Kanavape, are summoned this Wednesday afternoon before the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal. She must say whether CBD is considered a narcotic product in France or not, a central question in this dossier.

For this, it will rely on the decision of the European Court of Justice which ruled in November 2020 that the ban on CBD in France was quite simply illegal. The Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal was initially due to rule in October 2018 on the fate of the two entrepreneurs sentenced at first instance in January by the Marseille Criminal Court to 18 and 15 months suspended prison sentence and a fine of 10,000 euros, in particular for drug offenses. But it had seized the European Court of Justice for opinion, fearing that the French regulations on this product could not be compatible with that of the European Union. What has therefore been reaffirmed by European justice,which also confirmed the free circulation of the product in the EU if it had been legally manufactured in one of the member countries.

"Innovative entrepreneur and not a drug trafficker"

Sébastien Beguerie now hopes "to be recognized as an innovative entrepreneur and not a drug trafficker in his own country".

In 2014, the two partners, Sébastien, the technician with a master's degree in plants in Holland, and Antonin, the sales representative trained in one of the largest business schools, positioned themselves on the CBD market in France before anyone else.

They are launching a CBD-based electronic cigarette while the European market is still in its infancy.

But this launch caused a stir and the authorities decided to take legal action against the two entrepreneurs.

This will earn them this conviction at first instance and this seven-year legal battle.

Me Xavier Pizzaro, lawyer for Sébastien Beguerie, hopes that this hearing "will make it possible to put an end to this legal heresy which sees hundreds of litigants abusively prosecuted in French courts under the legislation on narcotics".

Flowers and leaves excluded from the new text

Because France maintains the vagueness on this molecule, contained in cannabis just like THC, which has psychotropic effects unlike CBD, allowing many entrepreneurs to rush into this legal vagueness, as evidenced by the proliferation of stores. of CBD in France for several years.

After the decision of the European Court of Justice, France published this summer a draft order with the European Commission to expand the use of the hemp plant, and in particular to legalize cannabidiol oils (CBD). "The authorization of cultivation, import, export and industrial and commercial use of hemp is extended, under certain conditions, to all parts of the hemp plant", provides this text.

Except that France excludes from this authorization the flowers and leaves of the plant, "the sale to consumers of raw flowers or leaves in all their forms, alone or in a mixture with other ingredients, in particular as smoking products, herbal teas or potpourris is prohibited ”.

Proof of the way still to go when these products represent more than half of the turnover of CBD stores and other tobacconists who market them.

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  • Society

  • Marseilles

  • Aix en Provence

  • Justice

  • Europe