Parisians queue for cannabis after softening of drug laws

marijuana Flickr CC Katheirne Hitt

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Parisians queue for cannabis after softening of drug laws

12 June 2018

By David Chazan

Paris’s first two ‘coffee shops’ selling legal cannabis have attracted long queues of customers eager to try a low-strength version of the drug now permitted under French law. The shops opened last week following a softening of restrictions to allow the sale of cannabis containing less than 0.2 per cent of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the main psychoactive ingredient. The shops’ owners insist that their hemp products will not induce the ‘high’ craved by drug users and are purely for those who like the taste and aroma. Although the cannabis has very little THC, it does contain a relaxant.