German police investigate CBD shop operators for violating narcotics law

Three men who run a CBD shop in southwestern Germany are under investigation for violating the country’s controlled substances law.

The men, all 28, are accused of illicitly producing narcotics and selling the products online and in their retail store in the city of Tübingen, state prosecutors and police said in a joint statement.

Authorities suspected that the men were selling intoxicating THC-containing products without authorization. Those products included tea, baking ingredients and oils containing marijuana, the statement read.

German authorities searched the store and their residences on Tuesday.

During the searches, police confiscated roughly 16 kilograms of marijuana flowers, 30 grams of marijuana, 16 grams of hashish, an inoperative indoor nursury, the majority of the store’s inventory, and laboratory equipment and utensils for manufacturing CBD products.

Germany’s narcotics law allows the sale of CBD products only if they can’t be used for intoxication purposes, state prosecutors said in the statement. It is erroneous, prosecutors said, to assume that culpability under the controlled substances law depends soley on THC content, meaning that products containing no more than 0.2% THC, the threshold for hemp, can still be considered illegal narcotics..