How to use a CBD flower: 5 ways and what French law allows

The five ways fall into two groups. With a joint, a pipe or a vaporiser, CBD enters through the lungs; with tea or cooking, it goes through the stomach and the liver.

Our catalogue lists its flowers in the CBD flowers category. They are sold raw and carry no food claim.

A joint and a pipe both burn the flower. The difference is practical: a joint needs paper and enough material to keep burning, while a pipe takes a small pinch. For the weight of flower a joint holds, see how many grams are in a CBD joint. To roll without tobacco, our guide to smoking without tobacco covers grinding and the filter tip. For a joint sold ready-rolled in a pack, our guide to CBD pre-rolled joints lists the six details to read.

A vaporiser heats ground flower without a flame until the cannabinoids and terpenes (the plant's aromatic compounds) turn to vapour. The measured settings are in our article on vaporisation temperatures.

Inhaling works quickly. A 2018 review in Frontiers in Pharmacology brought together the studies on how the human body handles CBD. It cites one study of smoked CBD in which five volunteers inhaled about 19 mg: the blood peak came after 3 minutes, and about 31% of the CBD reached the circulation. With only five people, take this as an order of magnitude. The review gives no equivalent figure for a flower vaporiser.

For choosing the flower itself, read our 6 checks before you buy.

Burning any plant material produces irritating compounds. In 2008, researchers at Health Canada ran cannabis and tobacco cigarettes, prepared the same way, through a smoking machine and analysed the smoke. Cannabis smoke contained up to 20 times more ammonia than tobacco smoke, and 3 to 5 times more hydrogen cyanide, nitrogen oxides and some aromatic amines. Leaving out tobacco takes away the nicotine, while these compounds remain.

There is no combustion in a vaporiser. An online survey published in 2007 questioned 6,883 cannabis users, 152 of whom mostly used a vaporiser. They reported fewer respiratory symptoms, such as coughing, even after adjustment for age, tobacco and amount used. The authors name the limits themselves: symptoms were self-reported, the sample was not random, and no lung-function test was done.

If you want to avoid smoke, the vaporiser is the only option that does so. It lowers one exposure, and inhaling still carries risks.

The French Ministry of Agriculture stated on 20 May 2026 that foods containing CBD are not authorised and must be withdrawn from the market. This follows from the EU Novel Food regulation. A food that was not widely eaten in Europe before 1997 needs an authorisation before sale, and CBD has never been granted one. The ministry's notice also covers online sales and reports several hundred poisonings linked to CBD foods since 2024.

Hemp seeds, seed oil and leaves "intended exclusively for making an aqueous infusion" are the exception and remain allowed, as long as no cannabinoid extract is added. The line falls here:

• Hemp leaves sold for tea are allowed.
• Flowering tops, meaning the flower, sold "for brewing" are banned.
• Raw flower sold with no food claim stays on sale under hemp rules.

Labelled "herbal tea", the same flower becomes an unauthorised food. These rules govern what shops sell and leave your kitchen alone, yet their reason holds at home as well: for the authorities, the safety of swallowed CBD has not been shown. The texts are set out in our overview of legal CBD in 2026.

According to the 2018 review, swallowed CBD usually peaks after 1 to 4 hours, and the liver breaks down a large share of it before it reaches the circulation. CBD dissolves readily in fats and very poorly in water. In studies the review cites, CBD exposure was up to 5 times higher in people who had eaten than in people who had fasted. With a homemade recipe, you have no way of knowing how much will be absorbed.

Some arithmetic gives the scale. In February 2026, EFSA set a provisional safe level of 2 mg of CBD per day for a 70 kg adult, for CBD of 98% purity in a food supplement. A flower at 10% CBD holds 100 mg per gram, 50 times that benchmark, and nobody knows how much of it ends up in a dish. The benchmark cannot be applied directly to a flower; it only shows how far apart the two are.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published a favourable opinion on a synthetic CBD as a novel food in the EFSA Journal on 18 September 2026. On 21 September, the trade journal FoodNavigator called it EFSA's first positive opinion on CBD in food. Its scope is limited to:

• a CBD produced by chemical synthesis, of at least 98% purity, dissolved in an MCT-type oil;
• use in a food supplement, with no more than 2 mg per day;
• adults over 25, pregnant and breastfeeding women excluded, with safety not established for people on medication.

Two further opinions came on 21 September, one on a CBD isolated from hemp and one on a hemp extract. In both cases EFSA concluded that safety cannot be established, because the applicants had not answered its requests for data.

Nothing changes for flowers. An opinion does not authorise anything by itself, and the decision still lies with the European Commission and the Member States. The product assessed is also a pure molecule dosed at 2 mg, whereas a flower is a plant.

Under article L3512-8 of France's Public Health Code, "smoking" is banned in places of collective use and on public transport. The text refers to smoking and makes no distinction according to what burns. Since 1 July 2025, decree no. 2025-582 of 27 June 2025 has extended the list to parks and gardens, beaches, bus shelters and the surroundings of schools.

Driving is where the risk lies. A compliant flower can contain up to 0.30% Δ⁹-THC, and the roadside saliva test detects THC, with no search for CBD. A positive test establishes the offence of driving after drug use whatever the dose. Since July 2025, the offence carries 3 years in prison and a 9,000 € fine. Measured detection times and the case law are in our article on CBD and driving.