You’ve probably seen the reports of the United States Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals’ January 7, 2025 opinion upholding a Virginia law that regulates consumable hemp products. I planned to put up a blog post soon after the...more
It’s the first week of January, and you all know what that means in the blogging game: It’s time to make wild predictions about the coming year. As always, making predictions is hard, particularly when they’re about the...more
1/6/2025
/ Agribusiness ,
Banking Sector ,
Business Licenses ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Dispensaries ,
Farm Bill ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Hemp ,
Hemp Cultivation ,
Hemp Related Businesses ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Cultivation ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
SAFE ,
State and Local Government
Part of the reason we started a Cannabis Industry team at a Southeastern-based law firm before any Southeastern state had adopted a marijuana program was because we had a hunch that the expansion of cannabis would eventually...more
12/6/2024
/ Agribusiness ,
Cannabidiol (CBD) oil ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Dispensaries ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Healthcare ,
Hemp ,
Hemp Cultivation ,
Hemp Related Businesses ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
State and Local Government ,
THC
In an April 2023 blog post, we questioned the constitutionality of Mississippi’s regulations that restrict medical cannabis businesses from advertising. And, in that post, we observed that challenging those regulations under...more
Well, our Matt Gaetz post was short lived. And, in hindsight, that should come as no surprise given the overwhelming opposition and allegations that continued to emerge. If you are a frequent reader of Budding Trends,...more
Last week, the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs held a hearing to discuss how the Lonestar State might soon regulate THC-infused beverages. Led by committee chair Sen. Bryan Hughes, the hearing heard from members of...more
We at Budding Trends have devoted thousands of words (and nearly as many pop culture references) to the escalating tension between the marijuana and hemp industries. It seems that to many in the cannabis industry this is a...more
10/11/2024
/ Agribusiness ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Controlled Substances Act ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Hemp ,
Hemp Related Businesses ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Plant Based Products ,
Recreational Use ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform
I guess if you do this job long enough, you’ll see just about everything. This time, it’s the attorney general of Mississippi wading into the legality of beverages containing hemp. And it’s a doozy....more
9/26/2024
/ Beverage Manufacturers ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Dispensaries ,
Hemp ,
Hemp Related Businesses ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
State and Local Government ,
State Attorneys General
You might think the laws of King Edward I of England (1239-1307), George Washington’s whisky distillery, and an 1807 “Treatise on the Law of Idiocy and Lunacy” have little to do with the federal criminal code of 2024. And you...more
9/6/2024
/ Ammunition ,
Appeals ,
Cannabis Products ,
Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) ,
Connelly v United States ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Controlled Substances ,
Criminal Code ,
Distilleries ,
Firearms ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
SCOTUS ,
Second Amendment ,
Unconstitutional Condition ,
Wine & Alcohol
Construction contracts for private projects will soon be subject to a new retainage law in Mississippi. On April 19, 2024, Gov. Tate Reeves approved SB 2762 into law, and after July 1, 2024, most construction contracts on...more
Thoroughbreds shouldn’t be the only ones racing towards a finish line in Kentucky in the near future. Those vying for a precious medical cannabis business license in Kentucky’s new medical cannabis program will also need to...more
5/3/2024
/ Applications ,
Business Licenses ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Dispensaries ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Cultivation ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Medical Marijuana ,
State and Local Government ,
State Legislatures
Cue the Ron Paul “It’s Happening” gif and shout it from the rooftops: DEA will reschedule marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act, per a report from the AP. The United States federal...more
It’s not a joke. On April 1, 2024, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that voters will decide in November whether Florida will become the 24th state to legalize adult-use marijuana. In the face of significant opposition that...more
4/11/2024
/ Ballot Measures ,
Cannabis Products ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Florida ,
General Elections ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana ,
Recreational Use ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
State and Local Government ,
State Legislatures
Earlier this week, the Florida legislature passed a bill (SB 1698) that will limit the amount of THC in hemp-derived products and threatens to upend the novel cannabinoid industry in the state.
For the past few years,...more
3/12/2024
/ Agricultural Sector ,
Cannabidiol (CBD) oil ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Florida ,
Governor DeSantis ,
Hemp ,
Hemp Related Businesses ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
New Legislation ,
State and Local Government
This morning, an Olive Branch medical cannabis dispensary, TruSource Medical Cannabis, and its owner, Clarence Cocroft, filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi against, in...more
Now that the dust is starting to settle on the recent news that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has recommended to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) that marijuana be moved from Schedule I to...more
9/20/2023
/ Advertising ,
Banking Sector ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Dispensaries ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
State and Local Government
Those long-awaited proposed revisions to the Mississippi Department of Health’s medical cannabis program regulations dropped last Thursday afternoon. Thankfully, the department released a red-lined version, highlighting...more
9/20/2023
/ Background Checks ,
Business Licenses ,
Business Operations ,
Cannabis Products ,
Compliance ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Dispensaries ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Health Care Providers ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Product Labels ,
Product Packaging ,
Proposed Amendments ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
State and Local Government ,
Work Permits
For years, the cannabis industry has been the purview of entrepreneurs and those willing to operate in gray areas — those willing to take some measure of risk to recover the premium on that risk. As cannabis has become legal...more
According to a report from Bloomberg News, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is officially recommending to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) that marijuana be moved from Schedule I to Schedule III...more
A question frequently encountered in the cannabis industry involves a cannabis user’s gun rights. This stems from the ever-present federal and state law tension overlaying marijuana in the United States — thanks to the...more
8/16/2023
/ Cannabis Products ,
Controlled Substances ,
Controlled Substances Act ,
Firearms ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana ,
Medical Marijuana ,
New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc et al v Bruen Superintendent of New York State Police et al ,
SCOTUS ,
Second Amendment ,
State and Local Government
Pursuant to the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act, Mississippi residents can petition the state’s Department of Health to add new serious medical conditions or their treatments to the existing list of conditions that qualify a...more
Word began circulating a few days ago that tobacco giant Philip Morris has agreed to purchase Israeli cannabis company Syqe Medical for a whopping $650 million if certain future events come to fruition. While the two...more
I sound like a broken record, but I will say it again: To remain compliant in the cannabis industry requires an almost constant state of diligence. This point was reinforced earlier this month when the Mississippi Department...more
After years of uncertainty, the USPTO has finally provided insight on how it views applications for cannabis-related marks, suggesting that the use of such marks will be heavily scrutinized.
In 2016, National Concession...more
5/12/2023
/ Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Patent Applications ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Registration ,
Patents ,
Trademark Application ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO
If you haven’t heard, the patient numbers in Mississippi’s new medical cannabis program are not rising at the pace many hoped they would. This has caused quite a bit of concern across the industry down here. A healthy pool of...more
4/20/2023
/ Advertising ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Revenue ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Marketing ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
State and Local Government