Industrial hemp, wellness, medical cannabis, recreational: why these distinctions?

We've received this question several times following the summary of the Conference on Hemp and Wellness : Why talk about «hemp for wellness»?

While one might indeed question the need for all these terms, they do serve to distinguish between the various uses of cannabis and the uniquely French regulatory framework surrounding it. We therefore have:

• from industrial hemp : Cannabis varieties with a THC content of -0.3%, for use in fiber and seed production
• Wellness Hemp: Cannabis strains containing -0.3% of THC, for comprehensive use of the plant—particularly the flower—for raw use and CBD extraction
• medical cannabis or medical marijuana : Cannabis strains for medical use.
• Recreational Cannabis: Cannabis Strains

While the industrial sector is already well developed, and the medical sector is on its way to becoming so, the other two operate within a legal framework that is unstable for the wellness sector and highly restrictive for the recreational sector.

What does the future hold for wellness hemp in France?

The recent symposium at the National Assembly aimed to shed light on the future of wellness hemp in France. The audience and speakers repeatedly emphasized the urgent need for legislation on the subject, not only for economic and health reasons, but also for legal reasons, as CBD entrepreneurs are currently subject to numerous lawsuits classified under the narcotics registry, for hemp flowers containing -0.2% of THC (The threshold will be raised to 0.3% in 2021) following changes to the CAP in Europe).

Even if the use of hemp flowers—which is legal under European law—were to be officially recognized in France, there will still be some constraints for hemp growers, notably a catalog of French hemp varieties low in CBD that will struggle to compete with American and Chinese varieties containing 0.3% of THC and 15% of CBD, and Swiss varieties containing 1% of THC and more than 20% of CBD.