CBD in Sweden
Despite high and varied restrictions, the Swedish market continues to develop. This page includes all of our detailed full-length Swedish market and regulatory reports, as well as both business and regulatory briefings covering current updates from the country.
Disagreement over how to regulate CBD products in Sweden
Cannabis sativa is a scheduled substance under Swedish drug laws, however, there is an exemption for the cultivation of industrial hemp in cases where farmers have applied for financial aid according to the rules of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Cannabidiol extracts are currently widely subject to medicines legislation as interpreted by Sweden’s Medical Products Agency.
In October 2019, Sweden’s administrative court upheld injunctions against several companies to stop selling dietary supplements containing CBD after five companies appealed. However, it also ruled that containing CBD does not automatically make a product pharmaceutical. The court disagreed with the Swedish Medical Products Agency’s assessment that products for oral consumption or inhalation containing cannabidiol should be considered a pharmaceutical “through function”, and therefore fall under pharmaceutical legislation. The court ruled that the legal status of each product must be assessed individually, while the Swedish Medical Products Agency announced that it still supported its original position that CBD supplements should be considered medical products.
