Smoking CBD in public in France: 8 banned places, €135 fine

Decree no. 2025-582 of 27 June 2025 rewrites article R3512-2 of the French Public Health Code, which lists the places where smoking is banned. The new version has applied since 29 June 2025. On top of enclosed covered places, public transport and playgrounds, article R3512-2 now adds:

• passenger waiting areas, bus shelters included, during service hours;
• the open-air areas of primary and secondary schools, and a perimeter around their entrances, during opening hours;
• the same areas around facilities that host minors, libraries and sports facilities;
• "beaches bordering bathing waters", during the bathing season;
• "public parks and gardens", with no time limit.

The perimeter around entrances is set by an order of 21 July 2025: a 10-metre radius on public space. The mayor can widen that radius and the hours around schools, facilities for minors, stadiums and libraries. The text only allows extensions.

Tobacco only, or anything you smoke?

Article R3512-2 applies "the ban on smoking" laid down by article L3512-8, whose wording is short: "Smoking is prohibited in places used collectively". The article sits in a chapter headed "Tobacco products", and the decree speaks of "tobacco-free spaces". Yet the rule targets the act and names no product. Not one line excludes a cigarette made of herbs, hemp or anything else.

We found no court ruling on a CBD joint smoked in a park. The cautious reading is therefore the simplest one: wherever a cigarette is banned, a CBD flower is banned too.

"Banned" means that smoking there is a petty offence, whatever the cigarette contains.

Out of season, the beach drops off the national list, but a town may have its own rules: the sign at the entrance is what counts.

Smoking in a banned place has been a fourth-class petty offence since a decree of 25 January 2025, under article R3515-2. France's National Consumer Institute gives the amount: a €135 fixed fine, which can rise to €750 if the case goes to court. Smoking in a car with a minor falls into the same class (article R3515-4).

An example: you smoke a CBD flower on a bench in a public garden on a Saturday afternoon. The product is legal, the place is not: that is €135 if you are fined. The same thing on the pavement, 20 metres from the park gate, is not an offence.

Vaping follows a different rule. Article L3513-6 bans it in schools and facilities for minors, enclosed public transport and enclosed covered workplaces, but not on beaches or in parks, which fall under the smoking ban. For the difference between burning and heating a flower, see our article on vaporisation temperature.

The café terrace. Smoking is allowed there if it really is outdoors. The Court of Cassation ruled on 13 June 2013 (no. 12-22.170) that a terrace escapes the ban if it is completely uncovered, or covered but fully open at the front. A terrace closed in with tarpaulins becomes an enclosed covered place, and smoking stops there.

The workplace. Every enclosed covered workplace is non-smoking, except for a smoking room built to precise standards. The employer can also address the subject in the internal rules and provide for drug testing in some jobs. The THC that a legal flower contains can then become a problem: we explain it in our article on saliva testing at work.

The car. Article L3512-9 leaves no room for doubt: "All occupants of a vehicle are prohibited from smoking in the presence of a child under eighteen". Between adults, smoking is not banned. The driver still runs another risk: a flower at 0.30% contains up to 3 mg of THC per gram, which can be enough to make a roadside drug test positive. Our article on smoking hemp puts figures on that risk and the penalties.

No text bans smoking in your own home, whether you own it or rent it. Two limits apply.

Tenants have two obligations that matter here, set by article 7 of the law of 6 July 1989. They must "use the rented premises peacefully". They are also answerable for "damage and losses" that occur during the lease.

As for neighbours, article 1253 of the Civil Code, in force since 17 April 2024, makes liable whoever is "at the origin of a disturbance exceeding the normal inconveniences of neighbourhood". No fault needs to be proven. The judge looks at the actual situation: an occasional cigarette on a balcony does not weigh the same as smoke that comes into the neighbour's home every evening.

A CBD flower looks like a cannabis flower and smells like one. The French State argued exactly that before the Council of State, claiming the resemblance hampered the fight against drugs. The Council of State replied on 29 December 2022 that the THC content "can be checked using quick and inexpensive tests". In other words, neither smell nor appearance settles it: the THC measurement does, with a legal ceiling of 0.30%.

In practice, keep the flower in its original packaging, with the label and the batch number. And remember the legal distinction: CBD is not a narcotic, but a product above the THC threshold is one. Our article is CBD a drug? sets out that framework in detail. The flowers in our catalogue are listed in the CBD flowers category, with their displayed content.