Kanavape: Aix Court of Appeal decision expected on November 17

Prosecuted in 2014 and convicted in the first instance in early 2018, Sébastien Béguerie and Antonin Cohen, the two co-founders of Kanavape, were due to appear yesterday before the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal in their Kanavape trial.

In October 2018, the Cour d'Appel d'Aix had decided to accede positively to the preliminary question posed by Ingrid Metton, then Sébastien Béguerie's lawyer. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) was therefore tasked with answering several questions, including whether cannabidiol (CBD) was a narcotic and whether France could prohibit its import from one of Europe's member countries if it had been legally produced.

The The CJEU has ruled that CBD is not a narcotic, that a member state could not restrict the free circulation of CBD-based products and that CBD could be derived from hemp flower. A slap in the face for MILDECA which went to great lengths to interpret legal texts restrictively and without any legal basis.

The decision of the Aix Court of Appeal will now be based on the CJEU ruling, even if it has the option of derogating from it. Yesterday's hearing served to clarify the various points on which the Court will have to rule:

• the legality of the alleged French ban on CBD
• the presentation of Kanavape as a «medicine», which was used as an argument by the Ministry of Health to stop marketing Kanavape in France
• incitement to use narcotics to promote clinical studies on Cannabis

The final ruling will be issued on November 17.

Me Xavier Pizzaro, Sébastien Beguerie's lawyer, hopes that this hearing «will put an end to this legal heresy which sees hundreds of people wrongfully prosecuted in French courts under drug legislation».

As for Sébastien Béguerie, he hopes «to finally be recognized as an innovative, forward-thinking entrepreneur and no longer as a delinquent» and «that France will finally be able to get away from the ideology it has cultivated around Cannabis and finally regulate a market in a calm, intelligent way for everyone».