Greece has sharply narrowed its legal market for hemp-derived cannabinoid products, effectively forcing full-spectrum CBD oils and some other natural extracts off shelves. The crackdown follows a Sept. 15 circular from the Greek Ministry of Health providing enforcement guidance under legislation adopted in July.
The new law rewrote Greece’s definition of permitted cannabis products. It recognizes qualifying cosmetics and food supplements and a separate category of products that contain “exclusively cannabidiol (CBD).”
That language creates problems for natural hemp extracts, which typically contain multiple cannabinoids. Full-spectrum CBD oils contain trace THC along with CBD and minor cannabinoids such as CBG, CBC and CBN.
The previous Greek definition was considerably broader, covering products derived from Cannabis sativa varieties containing up to 0.3% THC and products containing CBD. The new law also strengthened inspections and requires cannabis retailers to certify that their products comply with the revised framework.
The Ministry of Health is also providing guidance to regulators and businesses on identifying prohibited cannabis products. The rules are forcing Greek hemp businesses to withdraw or reformulate products that had been legally sold for years.
The restrictions are being sharply criticized within the Greek hemp sector. “The Minister of Health is setting Greece back 15 years in terms of regulating the legal cannabis market, while creating conditions of unfair competition and monopolistic exploitation for the benefit of specific business interests,” said Michalis Theodoropoulos, a longtime Greek hemp industry leader and founder and CEO of organic hemp producer KANNABIO.
Kannabio said products containing THC appear to be prohibited regardless of concentration. Its full-spectrum extracts typically contain less than 0.2% THC, while broad-spectrum products can retain quantifiable traces below 0.05%.
The company said some formulations will now have to be changed, including replacing natural full-spectrum extracts with CBD isolate. Even highly purified plant-derived CBD can retain minute traces of other cannabinoids, creating uncertainty over how literally regulators will apply the requirement that products contain CBD “exclusively.”
Greek legal analysis of the legislation says broad-spectrum extracts and products containing CBG and other minor cannabinoids fall outside the new definition because they contain cannabinoids other than CBD. That potentially removes an emerging class of cannabinoid products companies developed as the conventional CBD market weakened.
“The result is a brutal redistribution of the market: small and medium-sized industrial hemp producers are losing the products in which they invested, while large, vertically integrated medical cannabis companies are placed in a distinctly more advantageous position to fill the resulting gap,” Theodoropoulos said.
Prescription cannabinoid medicines remain governed under the medicinal framework. That includes pharmaceutical CBD such as Epidyolex and Greece’s broader prescription medical-cannabis system.
The restrictions apply separately from Greece’s rules for foods and food supplements, which are tied to EU food law. Cannabidiol and other cannabinoids are considered novel foods under EU rules and require authorization before they can legally be marketed as foods.
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