France starts cultivating medicinal cannabis |

March 1st may not go down in history as a revolutionary date in France – like July standbys like Bastille or Independence Day – but it will still be a significant date in the cannabis world.

The French government has finally seen the light of day, announcing that medicinal cannabis is here to stay. As a result, they have now approved a decree authorizing the medicinal cultivation, manufacture and distribution of medicinal cannabis in the country from today.

The move has been a long time coming, especially given the forward movement of another major economy, Germany’s, which kickstarted this process, albeit chaotically, in Spring 2017. The leisure market is in sight (along with several other EU countries implementing one – see Malta and Luxembourg), not to mention COVID and a national lawsuit that ultimately changed EU policy on CBD, the French have arrived.

Medicinal cannabis will be cultivated in France in the future, along with the establishment of a medicinal supply chain.

Now, as the Germans have already figured out, the real fun begins.

What cheese!

There will likely be all sorts of countertemps about interpretation by an industry fed up with endless loopholes. There will also be interesting challenges for a law written clearly in favor of the pharmaceutical industry unless a medically certified (EU-GMP) supply chain is created.

Here’s the first twist. According to Article 2, the production, including cultivation, manufacture, transport, import, export, possession, offering, acquisition and use of cannabis in France will remain prohibited unless a medical authorization has been expressly granted by the competent authorities – in this Case Case the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products.

Look to Germany for the same issues and a few more as the French are now moving to build the domestic medicinal cannabis industry.

This means that the largest listed Canadian companies that have not yet done so will at least gain a foothold in France. The nationwide medical trial started last year, requiring company participants to donate medicines and equipment. It will undoubtedly also mean that other pharmaceutical companies will enter the market, if not a rush to set up domestic sales companies (as has already happened in Germany).

What all this leaves very unclear, however, is whether French authorities will continue to accept flower cannabis as medicine. However, given the wording of the resolution, specifically “only breeders who have contracted to supply their production (to a licensed and authorized producer) may grow cannabis plants for the purpose of manufacturing medicinal products”, it appears that the flower on the way out might be . Unless, of course, someone complains first.

What does France have against cannabis flowers?

It seems very clear that whoever is writing the official French cannabis policy right now didn’t get the memo that France just lost a war over the CBD flower front ban.

In fact, in January, when the French government tried to create the regulatory environment for a CBD market in the wake of the Kanavape case and an EU decision on the matter, it was crushed (at least temporarily) by the country’s highest court. The authorities were trying also to ban the sale of CBD flowers.

Don’t think that such a decision has not gone unnoticed by any French federal authority. This is either sloppiness or, more realistically, a last-ditch effort to shut down the federal flower discussion for both THC and CBD.

Don’t expect the industry to miss this one, especially after just claiming several big wins.

Pharmaceutical interests versus the rest of the industry

Here’s the thing to remember. The forces charged against the plant are moving in lockstep, and this position is increasingly being rejected by court cases. Such legal showdowns are likely to be needed anywhere, and France has been a prime example of this, at EU level.

That so far surpasses the record of other challenges launched by other sovereign countries in the bloc. Look at the Spanish cannabis club industry’s failed attempts at the same nosebleed level over the last year. In fact, the Spanish industry (in a direct comparison) has not yet asserted itself legally, even with a federal one. Perhaps, unlike the French, the Spanish have already tried to cut off the whole recreational discussion by allowing a limited number of cultivation licenses (so far).

Indeed, that’s the strategy Germany tried to pursue — and instead ended up with big publicly traded Canadian companies, not to mention a new government that was essentially forced to push leisure reform no matter how slowly it tried.

It’s not clear who would take that spot in France, but with cultivation tracks now firmly established in other EU countries (including Portugal, Denmark and Germany), it’s highly unlikely that those folks will be moving to their home ones anytime soon Cultivation in France will be the same as in 2017.

That is also the intention of the French government. European leaders and regulators have not yet seen cannabis as an economic development.

However, as history (including in France) has long taught, in the face of overwhelming political, medical and social paradigm shifts, incremental steps rarely last long.

In other words, this development, long overdue as it may be, may not exactly be the storming of the Bastille, but perhaps it will finally ignite the powder keg.

Live the cannabis revolution!

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