Austrian hemp stakeholders say they’re getting ready a constitutional problem after the federal government authorised an modification that will transfer smokable hemp flowers beneath the nation’s tobacco monopoly.

The modification, authorised by the Council of Ministers this week, cements a late-2024 Administrative Court docket ruling that positioned hemp flowers beneath the Tobacco Monopoly Act, a discovering customs officers interpreted to imply that solely tobacconists and tobacco wholesalers might promote them. The restrictions take impact in January 2029.

“The enlargement of the tobacco monopoly to incorporate hashish is unconstitutional and an impermissible interference with the liberty to conduct a enterprise,” constitutional scholar Heinz Mayer, stated at a press convention Wednesday. He argued that the federal government has didn’t exhibit any factual justification for such a transfer.

The three-year transition interval permits current hemp and CBD retailers to proceed working till the tip of 2028, however provided that they safe a particular hemp license from the company that manages the Austrian Tobacco Monopoly. To qualify, retailers should have been working for the reason that begin of 2025 and should commerce predominantly in hemp merchandise.

‘Not a rescue, a demise blow’

Whereas officers say the transition is supposed to provide companies time to adapt, hemp retailers and others who spoke on the press convention Wednesday say the measure threatens the survival of a number of hundred companies.

“This isn’t a rescue, however in reality the demise blow,” stated Vienna retailer Lukas Bock, who stated he has paid excessive taxes for years solely to see the inspiration of his enterprise “merely taken away.” He added: “Tons of of others are in the identical scenario as me.”

Klaus Hübner, chairman of the Austrian Hashish Affiliation (ÖCB) stated the monopoly regime quantities to “inexplicable discrimination” in opposition to hemp retailers, calling the framework successfully a “skilled ban.” The affiliation is demanding a standalone Hashish Regulation with a coexistence mannequin outdoors the tobacco monopoly.

Business pushes again

Austria’s hemp flower dispute dates again a number of years, however sparks flew earlier this 12 months when the Supreme Administrative Court docket affirmed that smokable hemp flowers fall beneath the Tobacco Tax Act, making them topic to a tobacco tax of 34% of the retail worth. The ruling didn’t affect CBD oils, edibles, topicals, or different non-smokable merchandise, which stay authorized beneath EU guidelines so long as they comprise lower than 0.3% THC.

The ÖCB, newly fashioned this previous spring, instantly disputed that interpretation and filed a grievance with the Federal Finance Court docket, warning that the coverage amounted to an existential menace. That case stays pending.

Constitutional problem forward

Mayer, who issued a authorized opinion for the ÖCB in April, additionally drew a parallel to a 2015 case involving e-cigarettes. “We are actually in a scenario much like the place we had been 10 years in the past with e-cigarettes. The Tobacco Monopoly Act is being expanded and supplemented with a brand new product. At the moment, it was challenged and this view was confirmed by the Constitutional Court docket.” He stated he’s “satisfied this can even be the case with authorized hemp.”

Regardless of the consequence of the pending Federal Finance Court docket case, Mayer stated the matter will “positively find yourself earlier than the Constitutional Court docket.”

EU regulation stays clear: CBD shouldn’t be a narcotic, hemp flowers beneath the THC threshold could also be legally traded, and member states should observe single-market guidelines.

Sector braces for affect

If carried out, the 2029 monopoly shift would have an effect on retailers, processors, distributors, and even pharmacies. Business representatives warn that the restrictions may shutter a whole lot of outlets and eradicate greater than a thousand jobs, probably pushing shoppers towards the illicit market by means of greater costs and restricted entry.

For now, the ÖCB is getting ready for a constitutional battle that would decide whether or not Austria’s hemp sector survives in its present kind — or finds itself absorbed into the nation’s highly effective tobacco monopoly.