Is THC legal in Spain?

Situación jurídica

The EU's general threshold for THC in industrial hemp is 0.3 per cent (Regulation (EU) 2021/2115), applied to the crop rather than to a finished supplement.

Spain's food-law position references Regulation (EU) 2023/915, which sets maximum THC levels for hemp seeds and hemp seed oil only and does not reach a cannabinoid-extract spray or capsule. Spain has published no national guidance equivalent to the German or Luxembourg acute reference dose, so there is no Spanish administrative benchmark for THC in this product type.

The live Spanish exposure on THC is criminal rather than administrative. In judgment STS 301/2026 the Supreme Court held that hemp flower containing 0.3 to 0.7 per cent THC is a controlled drug under Article 368 of the Criminal Code, rejecting the UNODC protocol and applying a minimum psychoactive dose of 10 mg of THC - a figure derived from a 2003 National Institute of Toxicology study of synthetic dronabinol rather than of cannabis material. The judgment concerns flower and does not address oils, capsules or ingestibles.

More than thirty companies in the sector have since filed a clarification brief with the Supreme Court, are preparing a constitutional appeal, and are considering a reference to the Court of Justice of the EU on CBD products containing residual THC and their circulation between member states.

¿Vendemos aquí?

Sí, por ahora: Sleep spray, Sleep cápsulas.

Spain has no administrative limit for THC in a finished food supplement - no equivalent of the per-dose reference figures Germany and Luxembourg use. What Spain does have is a criminal line: in 2026 the Supreme Court held that hemp flower containing between 0.3 and 0.7 per cent THC is a controlled drug, applying a minimum psychoactive dose of 10 mg.

We want to be careful about how far that reaches. The judgment is about plant material - flower - and it does not address oils, capsules or supplements. Extending it to an extract-based product is not automatic, and no Spanish court has done so. The industry has filed challenges, and one possible route is a referral to the EU courts on precisely the question of CBD products with residual THC moving between member states, which is our situation.

Our batches test meaningfully below 0.2 per cent and we publish the certificates. We review Spain weekly, and this is the market where we expect the next real development.

Perspectivas

The material change to watch for is the first Spanish decision applying STS 301/2026 to something other than flower. The judgment reasons about the narcotic classification of plant material, and industrial hemp derivatives are analysed differently, so the extension is not automatic - but if a court makes it, this entry moves.

Running the other way, the sector's coordinated challenge could narrow or unsettle the judgment. A clarification brief is already before the Supreme Court, a constitutional appeal is in preparation, and a possible reference to the Court of Justice of the EU would put the intra-EU circulation of CBD products with residual THC directly in issue. Any of those outcomes would be significant, and the EU referral most of all.

Cronología

June 2025

AESAN approves Revision 2 of its questions and answers on hemp and cannabinoids in human food, stating that cannabinoids not classified as psychotropic, such as cannabidiol, cannot be used in food, whether used as such or added for example to an oil, and whether their origin is natural or synthetic, because they are novel foods. The document also applies the Regulation (EU) 2023/915 maximum THC levels for hemp seeds and derived foods.

AESAN

April 2026

Supreme Court judgment STS 301/2026 (Criminal Chamber) reverses an acquittal and holds that hemp flower containing 0.3 to 0.7 per cent THC and 6 to 13 per cent CBD is a controlled drug under Article 368 of the Criminal Code. The Court rejects the UNODC ST/NAR/40 protocol and applies a minimum psychoactive dose of 10 mg of THC, a figure derived from a 2003 Spanish National Institute of Toxicology study of synthetic dronabinol. The judgment concerns plant material and does not address oils, capsules or food supplements.

Francisco Azorin Abogados, analysing STS 301/2026

Mayo de 2026

More than 30 hemp and CBD companies coordinate a collective legal response to STS 301/2026: a clarification and supplement brief filed with the Supreme Court, a constitutional appeal being prepared for the Constitutional Court on presumption of innocence and legal certainty grounds, and a possible preliminary reference to the Court of Justice of the EU on CBD products containing residual THC and their intra-community circulation.

Soft Secrets