CBD France: Legal, but With Limitations

History of CBD in France

The history of CBD France is a pretty complicated one, full of various inconsistencies and, even more so, confusion. That said, there are a few things worth noting if you want to really understand is CBD oil legal in France, and how can you get some for yourself.

If there’s one thing that France does pretty well, is that the country differentiates between hemp- and cannabis-derived CBD products. This should actually always be the first thing you look into when trying to find out about CBD legalities in any of the countries of the world!

You see, many countries and states (the latter concern the US) tend to see both of the above-mentioned types of CBD products as the same thing. The truth couldn’t be more different - cannabis-derived products contain a lot of THC, while hemp-derived ones don’t.

This is important, since THC is the main reason why there are so many restrictions of using CBD, in the first place! It’s a controlled substance, and a drug - no wonder that the legalities of the topic create so much confusion!

Still, as I’ve mentioned earlier, CBD France is a topic that the country deals with pretty well. As a matter of fact, you could go as far as to say that France can be considered to be an Amber country.

France - An Amber Country

In order to help people get a decent good grip on which states uphold what types of CBD-related laws, the US has a pretty good color-coding system in place. In total, there are 4 different colors that are assigned to individual states - each of the colors represents a certain kind of outlook towards CBD and cannabis.

While the system was designed for the US, with some alterations, it’s actually very much applicable to other countries worldwide, too. CBD France is no exception here - if you understand the country’s “color”, you’ll have a much easier time trying to figure out is CBD oil legal in France. The colors in question are:

• Green countries. All CBD products are legal, both if they are derived from the hemp or cannabis plants.
• Amber countries. You can use hemp-derived CBD freely, but cannabis-derived products are only legal for medicinal purposes, or might even be illegal, overall.
• Amber-Red countries. Hemp-derived CBD products are legal to be used for medicinal purposes, and cannabis products are illegal.
• Red countries. All CBD products are illegal.

While it’s a bit of a stretch, the colors should still help you out in understanding the topic of CBD France. On that note, if you were to grant this country a specific color, France would usually be seen as an Amber nation.

What that means is that, quite frankly, all hemp-derived CBD products that don’t breach the 0,2% THC mark are legal to be used for both medicinal and recreational purposes. With cannabis, though, it’s a bit of a different story - while the country does seem to lean towards the more positive side, the laws concerning the topic are still very unclear and confusing.

Hemp Seed Oil - Don’t Get Tricked!

Since you no longer need to ask “is CBD oil legal in France?” (it is), you might want to go out and purchase some of that oil for yourself. Imagine that you stroll to your local pharmacy or supermarket, find the products that you want, buy it and bring it back home. After using it for a few weeks, you feel completely the same, and tricked.

Well, there’s a huge possibility that you’ve bought hemp SEED oil, instead of hemp-derived CBD oil. Confusing? Allow me to explain.

Hemp seed oil, as the name implies, comes from the seeds of the hemp plant. Regular hemp-derived CBD oil (in other words, the products that you’d want) is made from the stalk, leaves and other parts of the same plant - NOT the seeds.

What’s the difference? Well, hemp seed oil has some very low concentrations of CBD - it’s as good for you as any other type of oil that you’d use with your food products (coconut, olive, etc.).

Some shops actually try to trick people like this, and thus sell them one product for the price of another (hemp-derived CBD oil is generally more expensive than that made from hemp seeds). Always be very cautious of the products that you buy, and double-check the labels!

Medicinal VS Recreational

Another important factor when it comes to discussing CBD France is medicinal and recreational use of cannabidiol. Well, more specifically, it would have to do with the actual differences between those two types of uses.

Within the country, you can use CBD oil France for both purposes. Medicinal use usually refers to using cannabidiol-based products in order to help treat or alleviate the symptoms of some underlying health condition. CBD has been studied and is theorized to help people with a wide range of issues^[1], and is thus actually quite popular to be used for medicinal reasons.

On the other hand, recreational use is still the more popular alternative. That’s mostly because using CBD oil France recreationally requires no specific forms of documentation, and you don’t need to go out of your way to get assigned CBD as one of the treatment methods for your specific health condition.

In any case, the point still stands - whether you want to use CBD France for recreational or medicinal reasons, you can rest assured that it is allowed in France (naturally, this would reference hemp-derived CBD products).

Where to Buy CBD Oil in France?

As a final point in this CBD France guide, let’s talk about the best places where you could get yourself some CBD oil France.

In this regard, you have two possible choices - buying the desired products from your local CBD retailer, or ordering them online.

Usually, you would always assume that the latter is actually the superior choice in this scenario, right? Well, yes - that being said, there’s a slight issue here. But we’ll get to that in due time - first, let’s discuss the offline options.

Buying CBD Offline

Here are three of the more popular shops that sell CBD France.

CBD Corner - Great-Quality Products

Online, CBD Corner is often deemed to be one of the best places to get CBD products in Paris. That’s because, reportedly, the shop sells some great-quality products! The only issue that customers report has to do with the shop being closed quite often, and seemingly, without a prior warning.

France Nice - Friendly Staff

The France Nice CBD shop is reported to have some very friendly staff members that will both help you choose the best products for yourself, but will also educate you on the topic of CBD, in general.

MRS GREEN CBD SHOP - Potent, Effective CBD Products

The Mrs. Green CBD shop is located in Nice, same as the CBD shop that we’ve mentioned earlier. Mrs. Green’s shop, however, is said to not only have great reception and staff, but also sell some potent, high-quality CBD products, too!

Buying CBD Online

Now, as noted earlier on in this CBD France article, another option that you do have is to purchase your desired CBD products from reliable, high-end CBD providers found online.

Naturally, this is always the preferred option. Not only are you going to get better prices and perhaps even some promotional offers, but will also be certain that you’re buying superb-quality products, and not some hemp seed oil that was simply poured into a CBD bottle. Yes, that does happen.

There’s but a single issue here, however, and it has to do with the somewhat awkward CBD laws that the french uphold. You see, all of the top CBD providers that are currently dominating the industry are located in the US.

In of itself, that wouldn’t really be a big deal. Thing is, the US allows brands to produce hemp-derived CBD products that contain less than 0,3% THC, while France has set the benchmark even lower - 0,2%.

Yes, this does matter a lot - it’s actually a question of you possibly getting in trouble with the law enforcement! That said, if you do your research, and find brands that regulate their CBD concentrations to some lower standards (THC amount, and not products quality-wise!), you’ll be set! Now, let me tell you about 3 such brands.

cbdMD - Less than 0,2% THC

cbdMD sells customers broad-spectrum CBD products. This is actually the perfect type of CBD France - the oils offered by the brand are made from the hemp plant, and do easily fall in-line with the 0,2% THC regulation that France has in place. That said, cbdMD’s products are still going to be rather potent.

The costs for the cbdMD oil ranges from $29,99 up to $339,99.

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Charlotte’s Web - Multiple Potency Options

Charlotte’s Web offers a couple of different types of products - you could either purchase full-spectrum CBD oil, or CBD isolate. Naturally, if you want potent products, you’d go with the full-spectrum option - that said, it might have up to 0,3% THC, and thus might not be legal in France. The best thing to do is to contact the brand, and ask them directly!

Charlotte’s Web CBD oil prices go from $74,99 up to $188,99, while 30 mL of Charlotte’s Web CBD isolate will cost you $99,99.

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CBDistillery - Independently-Tested, US-Made CBD

CBDistillery does also sell both CBD isolate, and full-spectrum CBD oil. The isolate offered by this company, however, comes in powder form - it’s purer, and can be used with coffee, food or even creation of your own CBD oil. All of the brand’s products are independently tested by third-party labs, and are made from US-grown hemp.

CBDistillery CBD oil cost from $30 up to $260. The CBD isolate powder costs from $30 up to $2000.

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Conclusions

All that you need to keep in mind is that hemp-derived CBD products are, in fact, legal in France, both for medicinal and recreational use, alike. That said, you should also note that this is only true with hemp-derived CBD products that contain less than 0,2% THC within them.

If you’d like to try out CBD France, you can visit one of the multiple CBD shops in the country. The smarter thing to do, however, is to purchase CBD products online, directly from trustworthy and reliable providers.

Scientific References

1. Charlotte Marie Pretzsch, Jan Freyberg, Bogdan Voinescu, et al.: 'Effects of cannabidiol on brain excitation and inhibition systems; a randomised placebo-controlled single dose trial during magnetic resonance spectroscopy in adults with and without autism spectrum disorder'