Cancellation of declaration by department heads on their own.
Wien. The sale of smokable hemp in Austria’s tobacco shops will not begin as announced next Wednesday, July 8th. As a result of a corresponding price announcement on (today) Wednesday in the Official Journal of the Wiener Zeitung, the Ministry of Finance withdrew it in the afternoon. A closer, in-depth review in terms of health and consumer protection is needed.
The approval of the sale of smokable hemp with a THC content of less than 0.3 percent had been reported. According to the Ministry of Finance, however, this approval was issued by a department head in the Ministry of Finance, without the approval of the responsible section head. “The indefinite suspension will be announced immediately in the Wiener Zeitung,” said tax spokesman Johannes Pasquali of the APA – Austria Press Agency.
It is a very sensitive question, especially with regard to health consequences. An already marginal exceeding of the value of 0.3 would already be a case for the Addictive Substances Act. An in-depth analysis was therefore necessary for health reasons. For this reason, the section head responsible immediately initiated an examination. When asked about personnel consequences due to going it alone, Pasquali said that the internal processes would of course be checked.
Detailed examination of the submitted products
Now, in the interest of health and consumer protection, a detailed check of the submitted products is carried out for the time being. According to Pasquali, the aim is to prevent any doubts or exceed the legally permitted maximum. A time horizon for the review was not given. Pasquali: “It is a question that extends to health and consumer protection.”
Josef Prirschl, chairman of the tobacco tobacco shop in Austria, had stated in an APA interview that the finance ministry had been waiting for the product approval of the finance ministry and for the price to be published. Both give the consumer the certainty that he knows that the product in the tobacco shop is certified and safely below 0.3 (percent, note).
Products of this kind would in any case fall under the tobacco tax law and should not be sold elsewhere. Prirschl: “Our legal opinion has always been that products below 0.3 should never have been sold in the hemp shops because they always fell under the tobacco tax law. And above 0.3 not anyway, because they then fall into the narcotic law fall. “
Prirschl showed some understanding for the revocation of the Ministry of Finance: “Product safety is the most important thing for us. Of course, we want legal smokable hemp products below 0.3 to be sold where the consumer has this product safety.” In this context, he called for the enforcement of the tobacco tax law. However, Prirschl also called for a ban on the sale of hemp products in hemp shops: “They have been selling it illegally for several years – and nobody does anything.”
Wednesday’s price announcement dealt with smokable hemp products from a group consisting of five different products. According to Prirschl, these products had managed to be below 0.3 in the test procedure. The THC content is measured during cultivation at the end of flowering and must not exceed 0.3 percent. Each of the group’s products would have been available in weight quantities of 1.6 and 4 grams. The price per pack was marked with 19.90 and 39.90 euros.
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