Paris organizes its first “Salon du CBD” in the midst of legal uncertainty on the cannabinoid

Audio 01:18

The CBD trade has exploded in France and Europe, and could represent 1 billion euros within two years.

Here, a Parisian CBD store, February 2, 2021 © Bertrand Guay, AFP

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

In France and in Europe, the CBD market is growing and could represent more than a billion euros by 2023. While the legal vagueness surrounding the marketing in France of this non-psychotropic cannabis molecule could to clear up soon, the very first "Salon du CBD" took place in Paris on Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 October.

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In cosmetics, essential oil or more traditionally as a smoking herb: CBD is now everywhere.

Mahaut Aoste is CEO of High Society, a chain of specialty stores:

I think that we have just undergone 60 years of prohibition.

If you forbid a child to eat candy, the only thing he will want to do is eat candy.

There is a craze [for CBD] because the product works and it is very easy to use on a daily basis.

There are around 700 CBD shops in France, three times more than a year ago.

Mahaut Aoste says he regularly opens stores in France, Spain and Germany: “ 

We are a little less than 200 stores over almost four years of activity, and every month we open between four and ten and twenty stores.

 "

A decision of the European Court of Justice

gave wings to the sector

in 2020: the court considered that France does

not have the right to ban the import

of CBD products.

It was a liberation for Raphael Freuin, who has been banking on the sector for 10 years.

The sale of raw flowers and leaves for smoking soon to be banned

" 

Information is starting to be free in France, where before, we could not give a positive image of cannabis without being in" the incitement to the consumption of narcotics ",

he explains.

Thanks to CBD, which is differentiated from THC which is another cannabinoid, the public is finally discovering that cannabis has a lot of positives as well.

 "

A decree could soon

change the situation

.

The government wants to expand the cultivation and commercial use of CBD, but it wants to ban the sale of raw flowers and leaves for smoking.

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 Also to listen: 

CBD, a booming market

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