Is Cannabis Legal in Austria? THC, CBD and the 0.3% Rule

Walk into an Austrian Trafik or a licensed hemp shop and you can buy hemp flowers over the counter at a state-fixed price. Grow a THC-rich plant to harvest at home and you commit a criminal offense. Austria sits between Germany's partial legalization and Switzerland's trials: it has no adult-use channel at all, but it handles personal use mainly through health measures rather than punishment.

The 0.3% line in the Narcotics Ordinance

Annex I of the Narcotics Ordinance (Suchtgiftverordnung) lists the flowering and fruiting tops of cannabis as a narcotic, with specific exceptions.

Possession for personal use: crime, then diversion

Under §27 SMG, anyone who unlawfully acquires, possesses, produces, transports, imports or exports a narcotic faces up to one year in prison or a fine of up to 360 daily rates. If it is solely for personal use, the maximum drops to six months.

1. Police report
   Possession is a criminal offense, so police report it to the public prosecutor.
2. Health check, sometimes skipped
   Normally the district health authority assesses whether you need a health measure. For cannabis-only cases without proceedings in the previous five years, this assessment can be skipped (§35(4) SMG).
3. Provisional withdrawal
   Where the conditions of §35 are met, the prosecutor must provisionally withdraw from prosecution for personal-use offenses.
4. Probation period
   One to two years. The withdrawal can be tied to treatment or supervision; staying out of trouble ends the case.

Plants, cuttings and seeds

Seeds and leaves are outside the narcotics list. What §27(1) No. 2 SMG punishes is growing the cannabis plant "for the purpose of obtaining narcotics". The offense is therefore defined by purpose: raising a THC plant to harvest its flowers meets it, while the statute says nothing that makes seeds themselves illegal. Growing cannabis to produce medicines is reserved for the state agency AGES or its subsidiary (§6a SMG).

CBD flowers now go through the Trafik

On July 9, 2025 the Finance Ministry announced the first wholesale licenses for legal hemp flowers. It followed a ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court (VwGH) that smokable hemp flowers with no more than 0.3% THC are subject to tobacco tax, which in the ministry's view also brings them under the Tobacco Monopoly Act.

Where sold

Trafiken, plus licensed hemp shops until 31 December 2028; supplied by licensed wholesalers

Online sales

Banned, according to the Finance Ministry (July 2025)

Prices

Fixed retail prices, published officially

Packaging

Tobacco-style warning labels

Youth protection

Tobacco youth rules apply

THC limit

Up to 0.3%

Before this change, Austrian CBD shops sold flowers freely; under the ministry's reading, flowers for smoking now belong in the Trafik. A law passed in December 2025 softened this for existing shops: those that obtain a Monopoly Administration licence may keep selling flowers until 31 December 2028, and the June 2026 licence list named only 23 locations. Smokable hemp is subject to tobacco tax under the VwGH ruling of November 2024. Our guide to licensed CBD shops in Vienna and Austria explains how to check whether a shop is on that list. Watchlist Internet, Austria's consumer fraud portal, has flagged fake hemp and CBD web shops, such as hanfmeister[.]at, which appear on the Verdex Red List.

CBD oils, edibles and cosmetics

• CBD oils and extracts are novel foods under EU Regulation 2015/2283; with no authorization, they may not be marketed as food or supplements, according to the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES).
• Hemp flowers may not be used in food because of their expected cannabinoid content; hemp seeds, oil, flour and protein are fine within THC maximums of 3 mg/kg (seeds) and 7.5 mg/kg (seed oil).
• Cannabis extracts are not allowed in cosmetics under EU rules, AGES says.
• CBD may not be used in animal feed.

Austria next to Germany and Switzerland

A German resident's legal 25 g becomes a narcotics case the moment it crosses into Austria. Patients should read medical cannabis in Austria before traveling. More on the neighbors: CBD flowers in Germany, CBD in Switzerland and the Austria hub. This is a plain-language summary of federal law as of September 2026, not legal advice.