The October 7, 2020 Revolution — The Day The French Caved On Cannabis
French authorities have remained rather haughtily “above” the entire cannabis reform conversation since it began to heat up in 2016 across Europe. However, as of last week, even they are bowing to the inevitable, at least on the medical side.
With a single document, issued by French authorities last week, the issue of medical cannabis reform has been slated to move forward faster in the next six months than it has for decades. Namely they have finally committed to a medical cannabis trial in the country, starting no later than March 31, 2021.
This development is significant in itself, not to mention its timing, and seems to indicate that the last large European power is coming on board with the most basic steps towards reform. Of the three largest and most influential if not economically and politically significant European countries left in the EU (Germany, Italy and France), France has so far taken the back seat — all the while watching a rapidly Brexiting UK also move forward in its own strange and eclectic way.
Will this reform a la francaise continue and what is the significance of releasing this decision now?
C’est la Vie!
Emmanuel Macron, the ever calculating if not controversial President of France, has been promising some relief from France’s draconian cannabis laws (unreformed since the last century) ever since he took office.
However, that this announcement comes when it does is also not an accident. See the moving discussion at global levels at the WHO (with a rescheduling widely expected for December) if not the vote in New Zealand now widely expected to pass, even if by a whisker next week. If not events much closer to home. The Spanish industry itself is challenging their own government at the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Macron, of course, wants no such challenge to occur on French soil.
Beyond this of course, it is also clearly an attempt to tame both the breakout recreational (if only CBD) crowd as well as the pharmaceuticalizing industry. The trial will consist of 3,000 patients, volunteer doctors who have been trained by the French government, and companies who will have to provide the medication for free to participate.
Beyond this, the government is also clearly lining up on the side of those in Europe who want to keep production out of the country for as long as possible, and further to supply their first patients with imported drugs if not GMP grade flower.
While it clearly appears that the French government is trying to walk a cautious line between evolving trends if not developments across the EU, it also appears as if the French want to have their spice cake and eat it too.
It is of course not just well-heeled Parisians who recall the last time a French person was so cavalier about cake. Particularly in the times of Covid. Reforms if not revolutions of all kinds have been started over less.
For that reason, let’s see how long this “trial” is not overrun by external events. Like Luxembourg’s recreational market start next year. Not to mention the idea of a growing number of German patients, right across the border, getting their cannabinoids via several different avenues these days and generally staying out of jail while they do. Spanish and Dutch developments also notwithstanding. And they have cannabis clubs if not coffee shops.
Cannabis au chocolat anyone?
Why Are The French So Cautious?
While it may seem strange to non-European observers, the timing of the French trial (delayed for at least two years at this point) is also a strategically interesting one for another reason. Namely, the country is home to some of the largest pharmaceutical companies on the planet. The careful wording of the French trial also makes it clear that nothing but GMP grade cannabis could be dispensed throughout. While that is music to the ears of the established pharmaceutical companies in the country — even more than Spain — it also does little to resolve a still-EU wide problem at this point — namely creating enough infrastructure to supply this growing, highly certified market.
On the plus side? If nothing else, this opens the door to existing producers who have had to meet German standards, while shutting the rest of the discussion down (much like the Spanish have tried, but without the clubs). Indeed, it is entirely possible that Spanish and Portuguese producers will be able to fill the new French market with an interesting price points others globally so far cannot. And of course the German market is not ready to produce for since their product is all slated for domestic consumption at the moment.
And this against the obvious other discussion in the room. All while keeping the vast majority of potential home-grown French producers out of the medical market.
Will This Hold The Fort On Faster French Reform?
Here is the biggest problem that every government across Europe is dealing with. Namely, people have not stopped consuming cannabis during the Pandemic. Indeed, many are turning to the drug as a way to beat chronic anxiety, beyond any other diagnosed need. In most of Europe that still means buying from the grey if not outright black market. And this too, has its own risks, whether it is purveyed from a street seller or a cannabis club or coffee shop.
No matter how well run or comprehensive the official French trial is, in other words, and there are many indications that it may well go the way of Germany, there are still many who will be both desperate and locked out.
The French black market, which is supplied in many directions, including from Morocco, in other words, will not suffer a major hit, but Macron’s political backside will be, at least, temporarily protected including internationally.
Here is the thing that Macron will do well to remember: Safe political moves when it comes to the transition of cannabis to normality are rapidly running out of runway room. And while this slow, tiny first step may be the first crack in the Gaulish resistance so far to reform, it is absolutely aligned in the stars that it will not be the last. Indeed, this move also seems to indicate that further reforms may well be on the French docket sooner, indeed, rather than later.
