High-inducing herbal mixtures that are used as an alternative to cannabis cannot be considered medicinal products, the European Union’s top court ruled on Thursday.
Legal substances that create highs by mimicking the effect of banned drugs have long been a concern in the EU.
German authorities tried to use medicinal law to prosecute two men who were selling herbal mixtures containing synthetic substances that have an effect similar to cannabis when smoked. Anti-narcotic rules did not allow prosecution at the time.
But the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice ruled that the substances in question “cannot be classified as medicinal products” because they do not “have any immediate or long-term beneficial effects on human health.” It argued that besides inducing “a state of intoxication which may range from intense excitement to hallucinations,” the substances can also cause “nausea, intense vomiting, heart-racing, disorientation, delusions and even cardiac arrest.” “The mixtures in question are consumed not for therapeutic but for purely recreational purposes and ... they are, as such, harmful to human health,” the court said in a statement.
The EU judges said their ruling stands even if it means that the marketing of these products “is not subject to any criminal law sanction.”
