The European Commission will not consider CBD a narcotic drug

The European Commission has revised its preliminary assessment of CBD and declared that cannabidiol is not a narcotic. This change of tack comes in the wake of the’Kanavape ruling by the European Court of Justice (CJEU), which ruled that CBD was not a narcotic and that CBD products should benefit from the same free movement of goods between and among member states as other legal products.

CBD «can be qualified as food», added the European Commission in a letter sent Wednesday to the’European Industrial Hemp Association and a company that had applied Novel Food for CBD.

CBD was included in the EU Novel Food catalog in January 2019. The Novel Food classification requires extensive testing and authorization from food safety authorities before CBD can be included. CDB in certain products marketed as food.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, declared in July that it would had ceased to examine applications for prior authorization to market CBD products, while announcing that they would have to decide whether CBD should be regulated as a narcotic.

The Commission cited last month's CJEU ruling that the CBD derived from the whole hemp plant is not a narcotic. under the international drug treaties, and is therefore subject to EU law on the free movement of goods between member states.

The Commission's full statement to Novel Food applicants states precisely:

«In the light of the comments received from the applicants and the recent judgment of the Court in case C-663/184, the Commission has re-examined its preliminary assessment and concludes that cannabidiol is not to be considered a drug within the meaning of the 1961 United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs insofar as it has no psychotropic effect. Consequently, cannabidiol can be qualified as a food, provided that the other conditions of Article 2 of Regulation (EC) n°178/2002 are also met.»