Is CBD legal in Slovenia?

Formal status

Across the EU, CBD is classified as an unauthorised novel food under Regulation (EU) 2015/2283, and no Union list authorisation exists in any member state. EFSA has set a provisional safe intake level of roughly 2 mg per day for a 70 kg adult; that is a safety opinion, not an authorisation.

Slovenia's medicines agency takes the same view, stating that CBD intended for ingestion, including CBD extracts, is classified as an unauthorised novel food, that this covers any product to which cannabinoids are added as an ingredient, and that such products may not be placed on the market.

But the decisive Slovenian instrument is not food law. It is the drugs schedule. The Decree on the classification of illicit drugs places cannabis in Group II at entry 112, covering the plant, its resin and its extracts. The entry carries no THC threshold and no quantitative carve-out of any kind. Under the governing statute, Group II substances may be produced, traded and possessed only for medical, veterinary, teaching and scientific-research purposes, and may be placed in trade only with ministerial authorisation.

The courts have read this strictly. The Supreme Court has held that trade in a substance listed in the decree is prohibited regardless of the form and quantity in which it is placed on the market, citing earlier criminal judgments that any listed cannabis is a prohibited drug regardless of its THC content. The criminal offence carries one to ten years' imprisonment.

Cannabidiol itself is not listed in the decree. What places it there is that it arrives in an extract of the listed plant.

Do we sell here?

No.

No, we do not ship to Slovenia, and the reason is more serious than in most countries we have had to decline.

Slovenia lists cannabis extracts among its controlled drugs. The entry covers the plant, its resin and its extracts, and unlike almost every other country in Europe it sets no THC threshold and makes no exception for low-strength or non-intoxicating preparations. The Slovenian Supreme Court has confirmed that the prohibition applies regardless of the form and the quantity in which a product is sold, and earlier criminal judgments say plainly that any listed cannabis is a prohibited drug whatever its THC content. Cannabidiol itself is not named anywhere in that list - what brings our product within it is simply that CBD arrives in an extract of the plant.

We should be fair about the other side of this. Slovenia's own medicines agency describes CBD as an unauthorised novel food rather than a controlled drug, its health inspectorate has taken no action on CBD in five years, and a European court ruling in 2020 held that member states may not block CBD lawfully produced elsewhere in the EU. Slovenian shops do sell CBD products. So the written law and the way it is applied do not currently point the same way.

We have chosen to follow the written law. Selling into a country whose criminal code carries a one-to-ten-year penalty for trade in a listed substance is not a risk we are willing to take on our customers' behalf, however unlikely enforcement may look in practice.

We review this monthly and would genuinely like to be wrong. If Slovenia clarifies that its rule does not reach low-THC extracts, we will say so here and open the market.

Outlook

There is a genuine and unresolved tension in the Slovenian position, and it is the thing most likely to move.

The drugs schedule, read literally, treats every cannabis extract as a controlled substance. But the Court of Justice held in November 2020 that a member state may not prohibit the marketing of CBD lawfully produced in another member state where it is extracted from the whole plant. Slovenia's own health inspectorate described that judgment as a turning point in its annual report and its CBD inspection campaign never resumed. Meanwhile the medicines agency frames CBD as a novel food question rather than a drugs question, and in June 2026 a Slovenian producer's 10% CBD oil was recalled over a THC contaminant rather than over the CBD or the extract's status at all.

So the text and the practice pull in different directions, and nobody has been asked to resolve it. A published position from either agency, or a single court decision on whether the extract entry reaches a low-THC CBD product, would settle the question in one step. Until then the written law is what it is.

A new medical cannabis act took effect in August 2025. It does not relax the position for food products - it excludes the plant and its parts grown for food and industrial purposes, but pointedly not extracts.

Timeline

May 2012

Vrhovno sodišče RS, Sklep X Ips 17/2012: "Navedene določbe dajejo jasen odgovor, da je promet s substanco, ki je opredeljena v seznamu iz Uredbe, prepovedan ne glede na obliko in količino, v kateri je dana v promet, razen v zakonsko določenih primerih." The judgment's own footnote cites I Ips 157/2008 and I Ips 158/2008 (27 November 2008) and I Ips 138/2006 (28 June 2007) for the proposition that any cannabis listed in the decree is a prohibited drug regardless of THC content. Note: the decision is a sklep rejecting revision as inadmissible, and was decided when cannabis sat in Skupina I.

Vrhovno sodišče RS, ECLI:SI:VSRS:2012:X.IPS.17.2012

November 2019

Uredba o razvrstitvi prepovedanih drog (Ur. l. RS 69/19), adopted 21 November 2019, published 22 November 2019 and in force 7 December 2019, places cannabis in Skupina II at entry 112: "KONOPLJA — Cannabis sativa L. — ekstrakti / rastlina / smola". The entry carries no THC threshold and no quantitative carve-out. Made under ZPPPD, whose article 7(2) permits Group II trade only for medical, veterinary, teaching and scientific-research purposes and whose article 10(1) requires ministerial authorisation. Amended through Ur. l. RS 157/20, 162/21, 8/23, 113/23, 50/25 and 92/25 without change to entry 112 beyond a footnote cross-referring to ZKMZN.

Uradni list RS št. 69/2019

February 2020

Višje sodišče v Mariboru, Sodba II Kp 5584/2016, in a cross-border online drug-sales case: "iz katere države in v katero državo je bila droga dostavljena, pa ni odločilna, saj je prodaja prepovedane droge izvršena že s sporazumom med kupcem in prodajalcem glede količine in cene in se za izvršitev zakonskih znakov kaznivega dejanja tudi ne zahteva, da je bilo blago izročeno kupcu", applying the territoriality principle and the ubiquity theory in KZ-1 article 19. On this reasoning a foreign seller's exposure crystallises when the order is accepted, not when the parcel is dispatched.

Višje sodišče v Mariboru, ECLI:SI:VSMB:2020:II.KP.5584.2016

November 2020

The Court of Justice of the European Union gives judgment in C-663/18 (Kanavape), holding that a Member State may not prohibit the marketing of CBD lawfully produced in another Member State where it is extracted from the Cannabis sativa plant in its entirety. Slovenia's Health Inspectorate records the judgment in its 2020 annual report as a "prelomna sodba", and its 2019 CBD inspection campaign does not resume in any subsequent reporting year.

Court of Justice of the European Union, C-663/18

August 2025

Zakon o konoplji za medicinske in znanstvene namene (ZKMZN, Ur. l. RS 60/25), published 5 August 2025 and in force 20 August 2025. Article 2(6) defines cannabis for medical purposes to include "ekstrakte iz konoplje… ne glede na vsebnost tetrahidrokanabinola (THC), kot tudi… ostali kanabinoidi naravnega izvora". Article 3(1) excludes the plant and its parts grown from catalogue varieties for food and industrial purposes, but not extracts. Article 2(16) redefines import to expressly include inbound movement "iz držav članic Evropske unije", abandoning ZPPPD's customs-territory anchor. It repeals and amends nothing in ZPPPD.

Uradni list RS št. 60/2025

June 2026

ZIRS orders a recall of "CBD kapljice, 1000 mg, 10 %" (Agrosloven z.o.o., Golnik; distributed by Be Healthy d.o.o., Šenčur), triggered by a RASFF notification, on the ground that "prisotnost THC (292,5 mg/kg) v zadevnem prehranskem dopolnilu, lahko predstavlja tveganje za zdravje ljudi". Both producer and distributor are Slovenian-established. The objection was the THC content, not the CBD or the product's novel-food status — and a Slovenian producer had been openly selling a 10% CBD oral supplement until this point.

Zdravstveni inšpektorat RS — Nevarni in neskladni izdelki