Across the EU, cannabinoid extracts including CBN are classified as unauthorised novel foods under Regulation (EU) 2015/2283, and no Union list authorisation exists in any member state.

In Ireland that food-law question is beside the point, because cannabinol is a controlled drug in its own right. The Schedule to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 names Cannabinol, except where contained in cannabis or cannabis resin, and Cannabinol derivatives, and paragraph 5 of the same Schedule extends control to any preparation or product containing any proportion of them. Both entries are reproduced in Schedule 1 to the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2017 (S.I. No. 173/2017), the strictest control schedule, as substituted by S.I. No. 210/2022. Regulation 5(1) of those Regulations provides that a person shall not produce a controlled drug, supply or offer to supply a controlled drug, or import or export a controlled drug, and the enabling power in s. 5(1)(a)(ii) of the Act is expressly for prohibiting absolutely the importation of controlled drugs. Contravention carries up to fourteen years on indictment under s. 27(6)(a)(ii); possession for sale or supply under s. 15 carries up to life.

There is no exempt-product route for cannabinoids anywhere in the Irish instruments. Schedule 5 to the 2017 Regulations contains no cannabinoid entry, nor does the Misuse of Drugs (Exemption) Order 2017, and the only cannabis carve-out requires an authorised medicinal product delivered through a metered-dose mucosal mouth spray.