Germany's Greens Propose 1% THC Limit for Industrial Hemp, Dropping the "Abuse Clause"

A bill from the opposition, not the government

Drucksache 21/8942 was filed by Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (the Greens), currently in opposition in the Bundestag. Its full title translates as "Bill to amend the Cannabis Consumption Act: cutting bureaucratic hurdles for industrial hemp". As with any opposition bill, it needs support from the governing coalition to pass committee review and a floor vote. No date has been set for either.

The THC ceiling: from 0.3% to 1%, but not for food

The bill would let non-food industrial hemp contain up to 1% THC, instead of the current 0.3%. Hemp grown for food production would stay at 0.3%. The Greens say the change responds to farmers losing their crop's legal "industrial hemp" status after weather pushed THC content slightly over 0.3% at harvest, a threshold they call too tight to farm around reliably.

1% | THC ceiling the bill proposes for non-food industrial hemp, up from 0.3% today | https://www.hanf-magazin.com/recht/rechtslage-deutschland/neuer-nutzhanf-entwurf-gruene-wollen-1-prozent-thc-und-ein-fuetterungsverbot-fuer-blueten/

Dropping the "abuse clause"

Current law only allows hemp trade if misuse for intoxication is excluded, a rule known as the Missbrauchsklausel (abuse clause). The bill would remove it entirely. The Greens argue the clause no longer makes sense now that cannabis for personal consumption is already legal in Germany under the Konsumcannabisgesetz passed in 2024, so a separate justification test for hemp is redundant.

A new rule for animal feed, not for people

A new paragraph, 32a, would ban feeding hemp leaves and flowers to animals, and a violation would count as an administrative offence (Ordnungswidrigkeit), not a criminal one. Press cake left over from hemp seed oil production would stay allowed as feed, since seeds contain no THC. This part of the bill is about animal welfare and feed safety, and does not touch human consumption rules.

Who could grow hemp, and where

The bill would open industrial hemp cultivation to all agricultural enterprises, not just the registered growers the current system allows, and would permit growing indoors, subject to registration. The Greens' estimates attached to the bill project roughly €2.544 million a year in extra tax revenue and a one-off compliance cost to the industry of about €1.509 million.

How this compares with the EU's own hemp proposal

This is a separate track from the EU-level discussion we covered after the EU Council's October 2026 position on hemp as a farm product. That Council text keeps the EU-wide 0.3% THC limit for hemp to count as an agricultural product (with Parliament pushing for 0.5%), under a different legal instrument, the EU's common market organisation regulation. This German bill works under domestic cannabis law and only proposes 1% for hemp not destined for food. The two are not in conflict, since EU farm-product status and Germany's own domestic THC threshold for industrial hemp trade are legally separate questions, but they show the same direction: looser THC limits for industrial hemp on both levels.

What stays the same, for now

Nothing changes today. The bill has only been filed, not debated or voted on, and as things stand the governing coalition does not include the Greens, which makes the bill's path to a floor vote uncertain. The existing 0.3% THC limit for industrial hemp, and the current rules for what can be sold as CBD in Germany, remain in force until the Bundestag says otherwise. We will update this article if the bill is scheduled for a committee hearing.