Berlin, 2020-11-19: The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) announced in today’s press release that “a Member State may not prohibit the marketing of lawfully produced cannabidiol (CBD) in another Member State if it is derived from the entire Cannabis sativa plant and not only from its fibers and seeds.” The Court further states that EU law refers to two United Nations conventions when defining the terms “drug” or “narcotic”: the Convention on Psychotropic Substances and the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.

Jürgen Neumeyer, Managing Director of the German Industry Association Cannabiswirtschaft e.V., commented:

“As the cannabis industry, we welcome today’s ruling by the European Court of Justice (Case C-663/18), which, among other things, establishes that cannabidiol (CBD) is not a “narcotic.” With the ECJ’s ruling, a regulated CBD market in Germany and across Europe becomes more tangible. The cannabis industry recently proposed criteria for a regulated CBD market.

The ECJ thus follows the view of the World Health Organization (WHO), which has repeatedly emphasized that CBD does not meet the criteria of a drug under international narcotics conventions. This should render the European Commission’s so-called “preliminary assessment”—considering CBD as a narcotic—obsolete.

The German government is now also called upon to advocate accordingly during the upcoming international re-evaluation of cannabis and cannabinoids in early December and to support the WHO’s recommendations.”

The BvCW has documented the key statements of the WHO in its publication series “ELEMENTE, Volume 2.”