Is CBN legal in Hungary?

Formal status

Across the EU, CBN is treated the same way as CBD: cannabinoid-containing extracts of Cannabis sativa are unauthorised novel foods under Regulation (EU) 2015/2283, and no Union list authorisation exists in any member state.

Cannabinol is not scheduled in Hungary by name. Neither cannabinol nor cannabidiol appears anywhere in the Hungarian controlled substance schedules; what those schedules do contain, in addition to THC isomers and dronabinol, is a list of newer synthetic and semi-synthetic cannabinoids including tetrahydrocannabidiol, which is a different molecule from either.

CBN's position in Hungary therefore follows the material it arrives in, and that material is named. Schedule K1 lists cannabis, cannabis resin and extracts and tinctures of cannabis as a material entry, with no THC limb and no low-THC carve-out, and section 459(1a) of the criminal code adopts that schedule directly as its definition of a narcotic.

On the food side CBN is named expressly. The Hungarian food safety authority's guidance on hemp-based foods lists cannabidiol, cannabidiolic acid, cannabigerol, cannabinol and cannabichromene as novel foods when used as food ingredients, and extends that to hemp extracts and to any product to which a cannabinoid-containing extract has been added.

Do we sell here?

No.

No, we do not ship to Hungary.

Cannabinol is not named in Hungarian narcotics law, and nor is CBD. The difficulty is that Hungary's criminal schedule lists materials as well as substances, and one of its entries is extracts and tinctures of cannabis, with no minimum THC content and no exception for industrial hemp. A full-spectrum hemp extract is what that entry describes, whatever individual cannabinoids are or are not named.

Hungary's food safety authority separately names cannabinol as an unauthorised novel food when used as a food ingredient, which is the same EU-wide position that applies to CBD everywhere we sell.

In practice Hungarian authorities have treated these products as a food-law matter rather than a criminal one, and have referred foreign sellers to their home regulators rather than acting against them. But no Hungarian court has settled which rule governs a product like ours, and we are not willing to find out by shipping.

Our CBD page for Hungary sets out the reasoning in full.

Outlook

Nothing in Hungarian law singles cannabinol out, so its position will move only when the position of hemp extracts as a whole moves. The two things that would do that are a Hungarian ruling on whether the criminal schedule's entry for extracts of cannabis reaches a low-THC extract lawfully made elsewhere, or an EU novel food authorisation, which would settle the food question but not the criminal one.

Hungarian scrutiny of this category increased rather than eased through 2026, and the consumer protection authority has said its inspections will continue.

Timeline

September 2020

A joint police, medicines agency, disaster management and food safety operation raids Budapest's first cannabis-themed shop twenty minutes after it opens, seizing around four kilograms of plant material in 1,837 items later found to test at 0.11% THC.

Drogkutató Intézet, citing the police release

April 2021

Press reporting records the medicines agency adding roughly one prohibition decision per day to its list of banned CBD food supplements, on unauthorised novel-food grounds, against an estimated four hundred such products then on the Hungarian market.

Telex (report date; individual decisions undated)

July 2021

The medicines and nutrition agency publishes its CBD food-supplement guidance, stating that any preparation containing added or increased CBD cannot lawfully be marketed as a food or food supplement given CBD's unauthorised novel-food status.

OGYÉI

July 2021

The agency's full position paper on hemp and hemp derivatives sets a 25 mg/kg CBD contamination ceiling for permitted hemp-seed ingredients, states that foods and food supplements may not contain THC at all, and records that CBD as a substance is not a controlled substance in Hungary.

OGYÉI állásfoglalás (PDF creation date 2021-07-20)

January 2023

Hungary's controlled substance schedules, promulgated on 28 December 2022 in a new ministerial decree, enter into force; schedule K1 lists cannabis, cannabis resin and extracts and tinctures of cannabis as a material entry with no THC limb, and the criminal code adopts that list directly as its definition of a narcotic.

78/2022. (XII. 28.) BM rendelet; Btk. 459. § (1a)

August 2023

Reporting records that the prosecution has indicted the two owners of the raided Budapest shop for drug trafficking under the criminal code and is seeking two and a half years' immediate custody for each.

HVG (report date; the indictment itself is dated only to August 2023)

January 2024

The food safety authority publishes general guidance on hemp-based foods, naming cannabidiol, cannabinol, cannabigerol and cannabichromene as novel foods when used as food ingredients, and extending that to hemp extracts and to any product to which a cannabinoid-containing extract is added.

Nébih (displayed publication date; the page has since been silently revised)

June 2026

The controlled substance decree is amended again, confirming on its current consolidated text that the cannabis extract entry remains in force and unchanged.

1/2026. (VI. 19.) EüM rendelet amending 78/2022. (XII. 28.) BM rendelet

July 2026

The consumer protection authority publishes an analysis of the CBD market criticising "full spectrum" and "phytocannabinoid complex" labelling as obscuring composition, and the gap between marketing claims and the underlying evidence.

NKFH

July 2026

The consumer protection authority publishes the results of a targeted CBD inspection: none of the twelve products assessed as food was fully compliant, THC was found in eight of them at levels described as toxicologically concerning, declared CBD content was understated by up to four times, sleep claims were treated as unlawful medicinal claims including where made in blog content, and prohibition, withdrawal and fines followed - with foreign distributors referred to their home authorities.

NKFH