Cannabis foods and flowers face crackdown wave in Europe

The market for non-psychoactive cannabis products – from cookies to tea bags – is in trouble as EU countries impose fresh restrictions.

Famous for its relaxing and alleged medicinal properties, CBD is increasingly featured in edibles like sweets, chocolates, and oil-based food supplements, sold in accessible online stores or even eye-catching shops in the heart of Paris and other European capitals. While the EU Court of Justice ruled in 2020 that CBD should not be treated as a narcotic drug, it is still associated with health hazards.

CBD food products should never have been sold in the EU without clearing regulatory hurdles. Now, France has sent shockwaves through the industry by ending years of tacit tolerance.

Food and flowers

CBD edibles fall under the EU’s novel food rules, requiring a strict and lengthy approval process that no CBD food has yet cleared. But several countries, including France, have long turned a blind eye and allowed a grey market in CBD foods to flourish with little enforcement.

Things took a turn last month, when Paris imposed a strict ban on CBD edibles and said that public authorities would go after such foods as of 15 May.

“Consumers are advised not to buy or consume this type of product, regardless of the source,” reads a government press release.

Just a week later, Greece built on previous restrictions on CBD products and banned the retail sale of raw flowers, which have long fallen into a legal grey area in the EU and are used in homemade preparations such as herbal teas and cookies. Italy introduced similar restrictions last year.

Sitting on a pile of CBD

After years of tolerance towards CBD in France, the new restrictions have caught hemp growers off guard.

Hemp cultivation is allowed in the EU, and Brussels even proposed laxer rules for the crop under the post-2027 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Jason Etcheverry, a hemp farmer in southwest France, had just launched a line of edible CBD oils when the new restrictions were announced.

Etcheverry immediately recalled its camomile and lemon balm-infused oils, which are now listed as “coming soon” on his online shop. He is now rushing to rework an oil output of around 15,000 bottles into cosmetic products. “This is the only way to avoid total loss,” he said, warning the hit could reach at least €180,000.

France’s CBD lobby is preparing a legal challenge against the ban on edible products, accusing Paris of wielding EU rules as a “political weapon”.

Paul Maclean, president of the organisation UPCBD, even disputed that CBD should fall under the “novel food” category, which covers products not widely consumed before 1997.

(adm, cm)