Is THC legal in Hungary?

Formal status

At EU level, hemp may be grown and used where THC does not exceed 0.3 per cent, the figure set for agricultural hemp by Regulation (EU) 2021/2115. Member states remain free to set their own rules for finished consumer products, and Hungary has taken an unusual approach: it applies three different tests, and none of them is the one usually quoted.

For food, the test is a presence test with no numeric limb at all. Applying Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002, under which narcotic and psychotropic substances are not food, the Hungarian medicines and nutrition agency holds that foods and food supplements may not contain THC. There is no permitted level.

Hungary's 0.2 per cent figure exists, but it is a cultivation definition and the agency has expressly disclaimed it for food. A 2003 government decree defines low-THC hemp by reference to 0.2 per cent in the dried, root- and stem-free plant material, for the purpose of distinguishing low-THC from high-THC hemp varieties. The agency states that this figure is not applicable to foods or food supplements. It also sits below the EU agricultural figure of 0.3 per cent.

For criminal law the figure is a mass: six grams of total THC marks the small-quantity ceiling. That grades the offence rather than creating any exemption, and liability does not depend on it. The controlling entry is schedule K1, which lists cannabis, cannabis resin and extracts and tinctures of cannabis as a material, with no THC limb and no low-THC carve-out, and which the criminal code adopts directly as its definition of a narcotic.

The THC maximum levels in Regulation (EU) 2023/915 cover hemp seed and hemp seed products and infusions from hemp leaves. There is no maximum level for a cannabinoid extract, because an extract has no lawful food route for which to have one.

Do we sell here?

No.

No, we do not ship to Hungary.

Hungary does not set a permitted THC level for food supplements. It holds that they may not contain THC at all, on the basis that narcotic substances are not food. That is a presence test rather than a limit, so it is not something a product can be reformulated or tested down to meet - and our full-spectrum extract, like every full-spectrum hemp extract, contains trace THC by nature.

There is a 0.2 per cent figure in Hungarian law, and it is often quoted as though it settled this. It does not: it defines which hemp varieties may be grown, and the Hungarian authority has said in terms that it does not apply to foods or food supplements. We would rather say that plainly than lean on a number that does not mean what it appears to.

Our CBD page for Hungary sets out the wider position, including the criminal schedule entry that is the more serious obstacle.

Outlook

Hungary's food-side position on THC is a presence test rather than a threshold, so it cannot be met by reformulating or by testing lower. Only a change in the underlying rule would move it, and there is no sign of one.

The more likely source of movement is a court. No Hungarian ruling has yet addressed whether the criminal schedule's entry for extracts of cannabis reaches a low-THC hemp extract lawfully produced in another member state, and that is the question that would settle our position here.

Timeline

October 2003

Hungary defines low-THC hemp by reference to a 0.2% figure in the dried, root- and stem-free homogenised plant material; the medicines agency later states expressly that this cultivation figure does not govern foods or food supplements.

162/2003. (X. 16.) Korm. rendelet

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

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)

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 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