Austria countries/at.yaml
Possessing cannabis for personal use remains a crime, with a basic maximum of six months i … on hold for one to two years, with health measures such as treatment where needed.[@ris] [Austria replaced its drug law and kept diversion in 1998.](/history/austria-narcotics-act-1998/)
label Possession for personal use · treatment criminal · term Possession · prison 6 months · note Up to six months in prison or 360 day-fines; qualifying cases must … th measures, label Unpaid supply for another person's personal use · treatment criminal · term Supply · note Can be put on hold and later dropped under the same conditions as one's own personal use
Growing cannabis with the purpose of obtaining the controlled drug is a crime.[@ris] The p … the offence depends on that purpose, so plants can fall under it before flowering.[@ris] [Growing cannabis to obtain narcotics became an explicit offence in 2008.](/history/austria-drug-cultivation-offence-2008/)
Police report personal-use cases to the prosecutor and notify the health authority.[@ris] … law's conditions; this also covers unpaid supply for another person's personal use.[@ris] [Austria replaced its drug law and kept diversion in 1998.](/history/austria-narcotics-act-1998/)
Giving cannabis to another person is an offence.[@ris] Cases involving unpaid supply for that person's personal use can be put on hold and later dropped under the same conditions as one's own personal use.[@ris] [Austria replaced its drug law and kept diversion in 1998.](/history/austria-narcotics-act-1998/)
The law punishes acquiring and possessing cannabis, including for personal consumption.[@r … dropped, with health assessment or treatment where the legal conditions require it.[@ris] [Austria revised small-quantity diversion in 1985.](/history/austria-drug-law-amendment-1985/)
Recreational supply remains prohibited.[@ris] Patients can receive prescription cannabinoi … hly purified THC for pharmacy preparations, while cannabis flower remains excluded.[@svg] [Austria opened a narrow prescription-cannabinoid route in 2012.](/history/austria-sativex-2012/)
There is no legal recreational supply. Possessing cannabis for personal use stays a crime … the same way.[@ris] Police report users to the prosecutor and the health authority.[@ris] [Austria replaced its drug law and kept diversion in 1998.](/history/austria-narcotics-act-1998/)
Growing cannabis to obtain the drug for manufacturing medicines is reserved to AGES, the A … d only to businesses authorised to manufacture and wholesale medicines and poisons.[@ris] [Medicinal cultivation was reserved to AGES or its subsidiary in 2008.](/history/austria-medical-cultivation-2008/)
Prescription options include approved medicines made from cannabis extracts and pharmacy preparations using isolated delta-9-THC of more than 95% purity.[@svg] Cannabis flower cannot be prescribed under these rules.[@svg] A parliamentary report identifies dronabinol drops or capsules among the available preparations, alongside Sativex and Canemes.[@parl]
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Patients can obtain cannabinoid medicines on prescription, including pharmacy-compounded d … bis-extract medicines and highly purified THC preparations, while excluding flower.[@svg] [Austria opened a narrow prescription-cannabinoid route in 2012.](/history/austria-sativex-2012/)
A case put on hold comes with a probation period and any required health measures.[@ris] P … lly and the required measures are completed, the prosecutor finally drops the case.[@ris] [Austria replaced its drug law and kept diversion in 1998.](/history/austria-narcotics-act-1998/)
ORF — Neuregelung des Tabakmonopols beschlossen (10 December 2025) The Germany Eye — CBD Flower Sales Now Subject to Tobacco Monopoly Regulations (17 April 2025) Cannabis Freedom Index — Global Marijuana March (atlas) 8 unchanged
EUR
label Growing to obtain the drug, personal use only · treatment criminal · term Cultivation · prison 6 months · note Or 360 day-fines; case put on hold and later dropped if conditions met, label Growing to obtain the drug, basic offence · treatment criminal · term Cultivation · prison 1 year · note Or 360 day-fines; above the threshold, section 28 trafficking penalties apply
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Hemp flowers with less than 0.3% THC fall under the tobacco monopoly: a 2025 court ruling put smokable CBD flower under the Tobacco Monopoly Act, so only licensed tobacconists may sell it, supplied by approved wholesalers.[@eye25] Hemp and CBD shops may keep selling until the end of 2028; from 2029 low-THC cannabis goods fall fully under the monopoly.[@orf25] The industry association announced it would challenge the law at the Constitutional Court.[@orf25] [Austria put hemp flowers under the tobacco monopoly in 2025.](/history/austria-cbd-tobacco-monopoly-2025/)
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Vienna marches. The capital's Hanfwandertag joins the [Global Marijuana March](/culture/traditions/global-marijuana-march/), held on the first Saturday of May in hundreds of cities, with a procession down the Mariahilfer Strasse shopping street.[@march] [People in hundreds of cities marched for legalisation in 1999.](/history/global-marijuana-march-1999/) [Austria's Constitutional Court refused to hear a challenge to the ban in 2022.](/history/austria-constitutional-court-2022/) [Germany's plans reopened the debate in Austria in 2022.](/history/austria-german-legalisation-debate-2022/)
march