Is THC legal in Belgium?

Formal status

At EU level the general reference figure for hemp is 0.3% THC, set by Regulation (EU) 2021/2115 for the crop rather than for finished products. Regulation (EU) 2023/915 sets maximum levels for hemp seed foods - 3.0 mg/kg for seeds and 7.5 mg/kg for hemp seed oil - but those categories cover seed-derived foods and do not reach a cannabinoid extract.

Belgium sets its own threshold, and it is expressed unusually. Under the Royal Decree of 6 September 2017, cannabis resin, extracts and tinctures are scheduled narcotics only where the sum of delta-9-THC and THCA concentrations exceeds 0.3%. The same combined test governs the definition of the cannabis plant in the national annex. Both figures were raised from 0.2% by the Royal Decree of 24 April 2024, with effect from 1 June 2024. Below that threshold, an extract is simply not a scheduled substance in Belgium.

Cultivation is treated separately: the decree prohibits growing cannabis plants except as permitted under the EU common agricultural policy regulation, which is a cross-reference rather than a percentage, and it says nothing about products.

The finished product nevertheless remains barred as a food, because the Royal Decree of 31 August 2021 places Cannabis sativa L. on List 1 of dangerous plants. That prohibition operates regardless of THC content.

Do we sell here?

Not at the moment.

Our formula contains only the trace THC naturally present in a full-spectrum hemp extract, and every batch is third-party tested and published. On Belgium's own measure - which combines delta-9-THC and THCA and sets the line at 0.3%, raised from 0.2% in June 2024 - our extract sits comfortably below the point at which Belgian law would treat it as a controlled substance.

So THC is not why we do not ship to Belgium. The reason is a separate food rule that bars the cannabis plant from foodstuffs whatever its THC content. See our CBD page for Belgium for the fuller picture.

Outlook

Belgium moved in the permissive direction in June 2024 and there is no sign of that reversing. The threshold now matches the EU crop figure, which removes an anomaly rather than creating one.

The Council of State reserved its position when the threshold approach was first adopted, noting that the 1961 Convention listing of cannabis draws no distinction by THC content and that applying a threshold is therefore not free of legal difficulty. That reservation has stood for years without consequence, but it is the mechanism by which the threshold could in principle be challenged.

For a product in our range the practical question is not the threshold at all - it is the separate food-law prohibition, which no THC figure affects.

Timeline

August 2019

Joint operation by Politie Westkust, FOD Volksgezondheid, the FAVV and Customs at a CBD shop in Oostduinkerke, with a simultaneous action at a comparable shop in Antwerp. The entire stock of CBD oil bottles and the full quantity of tea were seized on the ground that the goods "bevatten meer verdovende middelen dan wettelijk toegestaan". Both targets were Belgian-established physical shops.

Politie Westkust

August 2021

Royal Decree of 31 August 2021 on foodstuffs containing plants places Cannabis sativa L. on List 1 of "dangerous plants", so foodstuffs and food supplements containing it may not be marketed in Belgium. The FPS Health FAQ states that e-commerce is caught as well: CBD oil "ne peut donc pas être commercialisée au sein de l'Union européenne (e-commerce interdit également)".

SPF Santé publique — FAQ Cannabis (February 2025 version)

April 2024

Royal Decree of 24 April 2024 (Moniteur belge 22 May 2024, in force 1 June 2024) raises the scheduling threshold in Annexes IA and IVB of the Royal Decree of 6 September 2017 from 0.2% to 0.3%. Cannabis resin, extracts and tinctures are scheduled narcotics only where the sum of Δ9-THC and THCA concentrations exceeds that figure; below it they are not scheduled at all.

Arrêté royal du 6 septembre 2017 — consolidated text (JUSTEL)

January 2026

AFMPS states that foodstuffs and food supplements containing parts of the cannabis plant "qui prétendent soulager la douleur ou les problèmes de sommeil" fall under medical cannabis, are not authorised as medicines in Belgium, and are therefore "vendus illégalement". The position turns on the combination of a cannabis-plant ingredient and a therapeutic claim, moving such products into AFMPS competence rather than that of FPS Health.

AFMPS — Médicaments et autres produits à base de cannabis ou cannabidiol