Is CBD hash legal in France? 0.30% THC and three traps

In France, a hemp resin is lawful when it meets all three of these conditions together.

1. Its variety of Cannabis sativa L. appears in the EU common catalogue of varieties or in the official French catalogue.
2. The Δ⁹-THC content of the finished product is 0.30% or less.
3. It holds no substance classed as a narcotic, an added synthetic cannabinoid for example.

A product's name proves nothing. "Hash", "resin", "ice-o-lator" and "pollen" describe processes and confer no legal status. The proof is in the batch analysis, covered further down.

The framework rests on two French texts, with an EU scheme alongside them.

Paragraph I of the order of 30 December 2021 authorises cultivation and commercial use "of only those varieties of Cannabis sativa L." whose Δ⁹-THC content "is not higher than 0.30%". Under paragraph III, the Δ⁹-THC content "of hemp extracts, and of the products that contain them" may not exceed 0.30% either. Resin is not named in the text, and the Conseil d'État, France's highest administrative court, takes those "extracts" to mean oils or isolates. A resin taken from the flowers of an authorised variety therefore comes under paragraph I, with the same cap on the finished product. MILDECA, the French government drugs agency, summarises the rule on its CBD page: narcotics law allows raw parts of the plant and products containing hemp extracts when they meet these conditions. Our guide to hemp varieties in the EU catalogue shows how to check the first condition.

Paragraph II of the same order banned selling raw flowers and leaves until the Conseil d'État struck it down on 29 December 2022. The court judged the ban disproportionate. It noted that cannabidiol "has no psychotropic properties" and that quick, cheap tests can check the THC content of a flower. Extracts, never banned, were outside the case. The decision still confirms how the threshold works: below 0.30%, hemp sits outside the narcotics regime.

At EU level, the Commission notes that hemp land receiving CAP support has to be sown with certified seed of common-catalogue varieties below 0.3% THC. The phrase "authorised variety" takes its meaning from that catalogue.

In technical terms, resin is a mass of trichome heads, the tiny glands covering the female flower, separated from the plant matter and often pressed. Processes vary by what does the separating: ice water, a sieve or an electrostatic charge. The haschich lexicon entry gives the history of the word, and our 90u or 120u guide decodes the micron figures on labels.

The word "hash" therefore covers both markets, while their legal status differs. Hash made from high-THC cannabis is a narcotic. Using it is an offence carrying one year in prison and a €3,750 fine under article L3421-1 of the Public Health Code. Since 20 August 2026, law no. 2026-798 has set at €500 the fixed fine that can close the prosecution. Our article on yellow foam hash describes the cutting agents found on that market, yellow foam among them.

Resin carries a risk of its own here. Semi-synthetic cannabinoids are made by chemically transforming other cannabinoids, and shops have sold them as oil, herb or resin. They imitate the effect of THC without being Δ⁹-THC. A product can therefore show 0.2% Δ⁹-THC and still be illegal.

ANSM, the French medicines agency, classed HHC and two derivatives as narcotics from 13 June 2023. A second decision, in force from 3 June 2024, extended the list to H4-CBD, H2-CBD, THCP, HHCPO and several synthetic cannabinoids, and the agency lists resin among the forms sold. That decision leaves out THCA present in hemp whose THC content meets the 0.30% threshold.

Be wary of two signs: a product name that mentions one of these molecules, and marketing that promises an effect "comparable to THC". Our article on the H4CBD ban goes through the case in detail.

Buying a legal product protects no one at the wheel. The Cour de cassation is France's highest court for criminal and civil cases. On 21 June 2023, it ruled that the offence of driving after using narcotics is made out once a blood or saliva test finds THC, whatever the dose. It added that the authorisation of products below 0.30% changes nothing. The government site service-public.fr reported the ruling in July 2023.

Article L235-1 of the Highway Code sets the penalty at 3 years in prison and a €9,000 fine. Resin at 0.2% THC still delivers THC. Our article on CBD and driving details the penalties.

The EU novel food rules have authorised no CBD food. On the same page, MILDECA concludes that CBD foods sold in France and across the Union are on the market "illegally". So a resin is not sold for eating, baked into a cake for sale or added to a drink on the market.

Two more limits apply. Our article on CBD and minors explains that no text sets a legal age for resin as such; Phytogrammes sells it to adults only. Health claims are not allowed either, since a hemp extract is not a medicine. Epidyolex, available on prescription, is the only CBD medicine authorised in France.

Colour, smell, texture and price reveal nothing about THC content. A laboratory analysis is the only way to measure it, usually by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). You need to read three lines:

• The batch number, which must match the one on the product in your hand.
• The Δ⁹-THC, stated as a figure, to compare with the 0.30% cap.
• The list of cannabinoids, where HHC or H4CBD should not appear.

Take an example seen on 23 September 2026: the page for the catalogue's Frozen Hash shows 15.0% CBD and 0.2% Δ⁹-THC for batch PG-26-AA10. On that day, the Δ⁹-THC shown for the fifteen products in the CBD resins and hash category ranged from 0.1 to 0.3%. The CBD percentage has no bearing on legality, since the threshold concerns the THC line alone. For the rest of the reading, see the certificate of analysis guide and the our laboratory page.