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Cannabidiol (CBD) is not considered a ‘narcotic drug’ under

European law
 LISBON 16.12.2020

In November 2020, the European Court of Justice published a judgement stating that cannabidiol
extracted from the cannabis plant should not be considered a drug under the 1961 United Nations
Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.
The 1961 UN Convention is the basis for national drug control laws controlling cannabis. It states
that unauthorised sale of ‘cannabis flowers’ and ‘extracts and tinctures of cannabis’ should be
subject to criminal penalties, and this was subsequently reflected in the EU Council Framework
Decision 2004/757 on drug trafficking penalties. These flowers and extracts contain several
different cannabinoids, whose concentrations can vary greatly by plant variety and by growing
technique. The two most extensively studied cannabinoids are tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and
cannabidiol (CBD). While THC is known to be the main psychoactive component of cannabis, the
recent review by the World Health Organization's Expert Committee on Drug Dependence found that
CBD ‘has no potential for abuse and no potential to produce dependence’ (1).
The European Court ruling resulted from a case referred from the French courts. In 2017, a French
court convicted the seller of e-cigarette cartridges containing CBD that had been legally extracted
from the whole hemp plant in Czechia, because in France only fibre and seeds are legal hemp. This
case was referred to the European Court of Justice (case C-663/18), and on 19 November 2020 the
court published its judgement (http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?
text=&docid=233925&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=17507020)).
The court stated that, while evidence of the risk to health from CBD was still limited but may justify
precautionary restrictive measures, it was inconsistent to apply the marketing ban only to organic,
and not synthetic, CBD. Examining the legality of these measures that restricted the free movement
of goods within the EU, the court also stated that CBD extracted from cannabis was not a drug within
the meaning of the 1961 Convention; and that the EU industrial hemp regulations were not
applicable to the CBD extract, as it is not an agricultural product within those regulations’ definitions.
Following this decision, the European Commission has noted in a recent press briefing that
cannabidiol should not be considered as a drug within the meaning of the United Nations Single
Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 and cannabidiol can be qualified as food, provided that the
other conditions of the EU Food Safety Regulation are also met.

Notes
(1) Report of 41st ECDD (https://www.who.int/medicines/access/controlled-substances/ecdd-41-st-meeting/en/) –
Cannabis: Report Extract, section 5.5.

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