French court overturns ruling saying sale of cannabidiol is illegal

PARIS (Reuters) - France's highest appeals court on Wednesday overturned a ruling that stores in the country can't legally sell cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychotic compound related to cannabis that is being researched for a variety of medical applications.

Based on the free trade of goods within the European Union, the Cour de cassation ruled that judges could not find the sale of CBD in France illegal if it had been legally produced in a member state of the bloc.

The Court of Justice of the EU ruled last year that no national law can prohibit the sale of CBD legally produced in a member state, the French court also said.

"Without considering whether the substances seized had not been legally produced in another member state of the European Union, the court failed to provide a basis for its decision," it said, referring to a ruling of a lower appeals court.

The Cour de cassation did not rule whether selling CBD in France was legal or not, and ordered a lower court to rule again on a case involving the owner of a shop selling CBD.

"We are happy", CBD shop owner Mathieu Bensa, who was not involved in the case, told Reuters after the ruling.

"We did not understand why France was the last country in the European Union that had not given access to the sale of hemp plants", he said.

Derived mainly from the hemp plant, CBD is increasingly used as a relaxant.

Cannabis stocks have attracted growing interest on world stock markets, particularly on the Toronto stock exchange after Canada became one of the first major economies to legalise the recreational use of marijuana.

Cannabis use is outlawed in France but the country has one of Europe's highest consumption rates.

(Reporting by Matthieu Protard, Benoit Van Overstraeten and Ardee Napolitano; Editing by Mark Potter)