Is THC legal in Romania?

Formal status

The EU's general threshold for THC in industrial hemp is 0.3 per cent (Regulation (EU) 2021/2115), applied to the crop rather than to a finished supplement. Romania applies 0.2 per cent under Law 339/2005, and applies it the same way - to the plant.

That is where Romania diverges sharply from most member states. The prosecution service's published position is that the authorised 0.20 per cent content applies to the cannabis plant cultivated under authorisation and not to the finished product derived from it, and that consequently any product containing THC falls within the notion of a risk drug under Law 143/2000. The courts have applied that reading to convict, including the High Court of Cassation and Justice in decision No. 2957/2013, which upheld a trafficking conviction despite THC below 0.2 per cent, and Tribunalul Brasov in August 2022, which convicted a company for selling CBD sweets, hemp flowers and cannabis oil declared at a maximum of 0.2 per cent.

The consequences are criminal rather than administrative. Article 2 of Law 143/2000 criminalises offering, sale, distribution, delivery by any title, sending and transport of risk drugs. Article 3 separately criminalises introducing them into the country and importing them, at higher penalties. Both name acts a cross-border seller performs.

Romanian courts convicting in these cases have themselves recorded that Romania has no specific legislation on the marketing of foods containing Cannabis sativa derivatives and no established CBD or THC levels for foods. The criminal law fills that gap.

Do we sell here?

No.

Outlook

Nothing currently signals a change. The reading has been consistent across more than a decade of Romanian decisions, and no court departing from it was found.

Two things would move it. The first is legislation: Romanian judges have criticised the absence of any specific rule on marketing foods containing cannabis derivatives for over ten years, and filling that gap is the obvious route to a different answer. The second is a binding interpretive ruling from the High Court, which would settle the finished-product question one way or the other rather than leaving it to case-by-case application.

A verified THC-free reformulation is the only product-side answer, and even that is untested against a reading that focuses on cannabis-derived material rather than on concentration.

Timeline

October 2013

High Court of Cassation and Justice decision No. 2957/2013 convicts defendants of drug trafficking despite a THC content below 0.2 per cent, reasoning that cannabis is scheduled under Law 143/2000 and that criminal liability turns on the substance rather than on its concentration.

Revista Universul Juridic (Bogdan Buneci), citing ICCJ dec. 2957/2013

January 2021

DIICOT and police conduct 23 searches across Brasov, Timis, Sibiu and Cluj counties against sellers and online distributors of hemp-derived products, seizing hemp-based food products among other items. DIICOT states that the authorised 0.20 per cent THC content applies to the cannabis plant cultivated under authorisation and not to the finished product derived from it, and that consequently any product containing THC falls within the notion of a risk drug and is caught by the criminal law.

Digi24, reporting DIICOT

August 2022

Tribunalul Brasov convicts a company of trafficking in risk drugs for selling CBD candies, hemp flowers and cannabis oil declared at a maximum of 0.2 per cent THC, imposing a fine of 22,000 lei. The court holds that the authorised 0.20 per cent THC content applies to the cannabis plant cultivated under authorisation and not to the finished product, and records that Romania has no specific legislation on the marketing of foods containing Cannabis sativa derivatives and no established minimum or maximum CBD or THC levels for food products.

NewsOnline, reporting Tribunalul Brasov