CBD and driving in France: 3 years and €9,000 since 2025

Law no. 2025-622 of 9 July 2025, published in the Official Journal the next day, created the offence of road homicide and toughened driving offences. It applies to acts committed from 11 July 2025. For drug driving, it raises the maximum penalties in article L235-1 of the Highway Code.

The law also created road homicide. The new article 221-18 of the Penal Code applies this term to a fatal crash caused by a driver whose test shows narcotic use, punishable by 7 years in prison and a €100,000 fine. The penalty rises to 10 years and €150,000 when several aggravating circumstances combine.

Refusing to take the test carries the same 3 years and €9,000. According to the official « Drogue au volant » page on service-public.fr, the loss of 6 licence points comes on top, along with a licence suspension of up to 5 years with no exemption for work, and an awareness course at your own expense.

A year later, the law of 18 August 2026 created a separate offence in article L237-1: driving after having "manifestly consumed" psychoactive substances on a list set by decree. It targets deliberate, diverted or excessive use, and changes nothing about the THC rule, which remains that of article L235-1.

A hemp product may contain up to 0.30% Δ⁹-THC. That limit governs sale, not driving: it is explained in our article on the legal THC level. A flower at 0.2% THC contains 2 mg of THC per gram. Smoked or vaped regularly, it can leave enough THC to trigger a test.

MILDECA, the body that coordinates French drug policy, says so on its page about CBD: traces of THC in CBD products "can pass into the blood or saliva of their consumers".

The courts make no distinction. In a ruling of 21 June 2023 (appeal no. 22-85.530), the Court of Cassation held that permission to sell hemp derivatives under 0.30% THC has "no bearing" on the offence. The offence is made out as soon as use is established, "whatever the dose absorbed". Having bought a legal product is therefore no defence.

French law punishes presence, not a state. It is a choice, because science offers no equivalent for THC of the 0.5 g of alcohol per litre of blood used for drink-driving.

An Australian team pooled 28 publications and 822 driving-related performance measures. According to this meta-analysis published in 2022 in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, THC concentrations in blood and saliva are "relatively poor indicators" of impairment. In occasional users the link exists but is weak. In regular users no significant relationship appeared.

An on-road trial published in 2020 in JAMA shows the gap more precisely. In Maastricht, 26 occasional users vaporised cannabis rich in THC, rich in CBD, balanced, or a placebo, before 100 km of driving. THC-rich cannabis increased lane weaving 40 to 100 minutes after use, but no longer significantly 4 to 5 hours later. CBD-rich cannabis did not differ from placebo. The authors note that the dose tested, 13.75 mg, may not reflect typical use.

That is the mismatch: in saliva, THC stays detectable long after the measured effect has ended. The table of detection times from Drogues Info Service, France's public drug information service, gives 6 to 8 hours after occasional use, up to 24 hours with regular use and up to 8 days with heavy daily use. A driver who no longer feels anything can still test positive, and the offence is made out.

Testing follows three stages, as described by service-public.fr:

1. Roadside saliva test. It looks for THC, never CBD.
2. Confirmation sample. If the test is positive, a second saliva sample goes to a laboratory. That result is the one that counts.
3. Blood sample, if you ask for one. It allows a counter-analysis, to be requested within 5 days of being notified of the result.

The kit thresholds, the molecules tested for and other types of test are covered in our guide CBD and drug testing. At work, different rules apply: see saliva testing by employers.

No official source gives a safe waiting time after a CBD product. The amount of THC varies from one product to another, and how fast it clears depends on how often you use it. Three practical rules follow.

• Do not drive after a full-spectrum product. Full-spectrum flowers, resins and oils contain THC, in small but real amounts.
• Choose a product with no detectable THC if you drive often. An isolate or a THC-free oil removes the risk, provided the batch analysis shows THC as "not detected", with its limit of detection.
• Read the analysis, not the label. Our guide to reading a certificate of analysis shows where to find the Δ⁹-THC line.

Clearance times, sample type by sample type, are covered in how long CBD stays in the body.