HHC in Austria: how the structural clause of the NPSV works

For shipments to Austria a close look is worthwhile, because the country has taken a different route than an enumeration of individual substances.

What applies in Austria

Annex II item 1 lit. l of the Neue-Psychoaktive-Substanzen-Verordnung names as the core structure Hexahydro-6H-benzo[c]chromen-1-ol. That is the HHC skeleton. A structural clause of this kind works differently from a list of substances: it captures not a name, but a molecular architecture — and with it also derivatives that nobody has yet named.

The clause is of more recent date. In the 2016 version the same enumeration ended at letter k; a letter l did not exist. The HHC skeleton was not captured at that time and is captured today.

Practical consequence: the question “is my substance on the list?” leads astray in Austria. The correct question is whether the molecule fits the core structure named.

What applies in Germany

HHC is listed by name in Annex II to the Betäubungsmittelgesetz. Handling it — and therefore purchase, storage and resale as well — requires a licence under § 3 BtMG. Anyone trading without one is moving in criminal law, not in the law of regulatory offences.

The entry knows one exception: for a non-synthetic form that is on the market for non-medical purposes. In practice this exception does not carry the trade. Commercially available HHC arises through hydrogenation from CBD or THC — it is therefore precisely not non-synthetic. Anyone wishing to rely on the exception must be able to document the origin without gaps; for hydrogenated goods this proof cannot, in our assessment, be furnished.

For wholesale this simply means: no HHC without a § 3 licence. A batch with a clean certificate of analysis does not change that, because the certificate documents the content and not the licence.

For cross-border distribution

That two neighbouring countries capture the same substance does not mean that they treat it the same way. For HHC Germany works with narcotics law and a licensing requirement, Austria with a structural clause in NPS law. Anyone supplying several markets needs the classification for each country of destination — there is no single answer valid across Europe.

What we carry instead

Our range is deliberately cut so that it works in all the markets we supply.

Our range consists entirely of CBD products from EU-certified cultivation: CBD flowers as well as the remaining B2B range. Every batch comes with a certificate of analysis, and the goods are marketable in the markets into which we supply them.

Why this article no longer says what it once said

Until September 2026 this address held an advertising text for HHC and THCP wholesale. It came from a time when both substances were traded, and it inadvertently remained in place after the range was cleaned up. We have replaced it with this classification instead of deleting the page — the question behind it is legitimate, the old answer no longer was.

Status of the information: 30 September 2026. Legal situations change; this page is a classification and does not replace legal advice.