Is CBD legal in the Netherlands?

Situación jurídica

CBD has been classified as a Novel Food across the EU since January 2019 (Regulation (EU) 2015/2283), and no CBD ingestible holds Union list authorisation anywhere in the EU. In the Netherlands that food-law position is real but secondary.

The Dutch question is a narcotics question. CBD as a molecule is not scheduled under the Opiumwet. But the Opiumwet schedules hennepolie, defined as concentrate of plants of the genus Cannabis obtained by extraction of hemp or hashish, whether or not mixed with oil. That definition operates on the extraction process rather than on which cannabinoid results from it, and it contains no THC threshold. On the ordinary reading, a full-spectrum hemp extract is caught by it whatever its CBD or THC content.

Articles 2 and 3 of the Opiumwet prohibit bringing a listed substance into or out of Dutch territory, and selling, delivering, supplying or transporting it. Those are the acts a cross-border seller performs, and the penalties are criminal rather than administrative.

One honest qualification. We were not able to read the current schedule text ourselves to confirm that the hennepolie entry stands in its present form, so we do not assert it as settled. What we can point to is how the definition has been applied: the Hague Court of Appeal relied on it in 2017 to convict in respect of EU-certified fibre hemp below 0.2 per cent THC intended for CBD oil.

¿Vendemos aquí?

No.

We don't sell to the Netherlands.

The Dutch position is unusual and worth explaining properly, because it is not the same objection that applies elsewhere in Europe. CBD itself is not a controlled substance in the Netherlands. But Dutch drug law schedules hemp extract - concentrate obtained by extracting hemp - as a controlled substance in its own right, and that definition turns on the extraction process rather than on what the extract contains. It sets no THC threshold. On the ordinary reading of it, a full-spectrum extract like ours is caught however little THC it holds, and the Dutch Opium Act names importing and delivering among the prohibited acts, with criminal rather than administrative penalties.

We want to be straight about one thing: we were not able to read the current Dutch schedule ourselves to confirm that entry still stands in its present form, and there is a real argument that the position is softer than it looks. We stopped shipping anyway. When the question is whether a product is a controlled substance in a country, and we cannot answer it to our own satisfaction, we would rather not be selling there while we work it out.

Separately, our 1 mg of melatonin exceeds the Dutch limit for a food supplement in its own right - that is set out on our melatonin page for the Netherlands.

If the legal position becomes clear and it is favourable, we will look at this again.

Perspectivas

Two things could change the Dutch position, and they run in opposite directions.

The first is the Court of Justice of the EU. In February 2026 the Dutch Supreme Court referred questions asking whether Union law permits the Netherlands to criminalise the possession and the import from another member state of hemp grown from certified seed with THC no higher than 0.3 per cent. If the Court answers that it does not, the mechanism that currently makes a hemp extract a scheduled substance becomes difficult to apply to goods lawfully produced elsewhere in the EU, and the Dutch position could change substantially. Referrals of this kind typically take well over a year.

The second is domestic. Proposals to redefine the scheduled category so that CBD products fall outside it have been put to the health ministry since 2019 and have not been adopted. Nothing suggests that is about to change.

We will revisit this if either moves.

Cronología

February 2017

Gerechtshof Den Haag convicts a Rotterdam operator in respect of EU-certified industrial fibre hemp, below 0.2 per cent THC and held with certification, intended for the production of CBD oil. The prosecution relied on the Opiumwet definition of hennepolie - concentrate of plants of the genus Cannabis obtained by extraction of hemp or hashish, whether or not mixed with oil - to treat hemp extract material as a controlled substance. Defence commentary criticises the court for holding that cultivating and processing fibre hemp is lawful while possessing it is not.

CNNBS, reporting Gerechtshof Den Haag

Febrero de 2026

The Hoge Raad refers questions to the Court of Justice of the EU on whether it is compatible with Union law to criminalise, under the Opiumwet, the possession and the import from another member state of hemp grown from certified seed and/or with a THC content no higher than 0.3 per cent. The referral puts the application of the Dutch narcotics framework to low-THC hemp lawfully produced elsewhere in the EU directly in issue.

Hoge Raad der Nederlanden