EU law sets a 0.3% delta-9-THC threshold for industrial hemp varieties under Regulation (EU) 2021/2115. That figure attaches to the crop in the field and to eligibility for direct payments, not to finished product content.

Ireland does not apply a tighter threshold - it applies none at all. Delta-9-THC is controlled as a cannabinol derivative, the Schedule to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 defining that term as the tetrahydro derivatives of cannabinol and their 3-alkyl homologues, and paragraph 5 extending control to any preparation containing any proportion. The High Court confirmed this in Lynch v Minister for Health [2024] IEHC 463, delivered 25 July 2024: any substance or preparation which contains THC is a controlled drug, irrespective of the proportion of THC present. The Court held that such a preparation is a narcotic drug under the Single Convention and so falls outside the free movement of goods, distinguished the Court of Justice's Kanavape judgment on the basis that the 0.2% figure is a threshold for the plant variety rather than for the finished product, and refused to refer the question. The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal in 2025.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland states the position directly: there is no legal threshold or tolerance in Ireland for the presence of THC in food, except for hemp seed and hemp seed derived products. That exception, introduced by S.I. No. 150/2023, covers delta-9-THC as a contaminant in hemp seed foodstuffs at the maximum levels set by EU contaminants law, and does not extend to extracts of the aerial parts of the plant.