It’s a matter of supply and demand. With coronavirus shutting down the regular pipeline of cannabis into France, where marijuana is not legal, pricing has soared.

Hash seems to be a product of choice for the French, according to Merry Jane. But while nearby countries such as Morocco, Belgium and the Netherlands usually offer enough supply to satisfy demand, travel restrictions have bumped black market pricing to absolutely wild levels.

Since the coronavirus crisis took hold, “the price of a 100-gram bar of resin went from 280 euros to 500 euros in a week in Marseille,” Yann Bastiere, a senior police union official, told Reuters last week.

Of course, Marseille is not alone, Bastiere said. Bordeaux and Rennes appear to be in the same boat. And the situation is likely only to worsen as COVID-19 rages on.

There may be some hope coming down the pipe, at least for medical marijuana users, however. The country’s National Assembly recently green lit a two-year initiative aimed at offering an alternative treatment to 3,000 patients with conditions such as neuropathic pain, severe epilepsy and muscular sclerosis-related painful spasticity.

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