A few weeks ago, someone at a holiday party asked “Whitt, why doesn’t Budding Trends take on the weighty legal issues of the day and instead resort to cheap pop culture references and puns?” I thought about responding with a...more
1/14/2025
/ Banking Sector ,
Compliance ,
Controlled Substances ,
DEA ,
Dispensaries ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Interstate Commerce ,
Investment ,
Investors ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Pharmacies ,
Private Equity ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Schedule I Drugs ,
State and Local Government ,
State Taxes ,
Tax Liability ,
Tax Reform
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
2024 was a banner year for cannabis lawmakers and business operators. From Kamala Harris advocating for marijuana reforms to California’s clash of titans between hemp and marijuana markets, there was no shortage of drama in...more
12/31/2024
/ Agribusiness ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
DEA ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Dispensaries ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Farm Bill ,
Hemp ,
Hemp Cultivation ,
Hemp Related Businesses ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Cultivation ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Recreational Use ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
State and Local Government ,
State Legislatures ,
Trump Administration
Trademark law protects businesses’ brand identities and helps prevent consumer confusion. The U.S. trademark system operates at both federal and state levels. Federal registration through the United States Patent and...more
12/11/2024
/ Agribusiness ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Controlled Substances Act ,
Farm Bill ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Legalization ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Trademark Application ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO
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
On November 7, 2023, Ohio approved an adult-use marijuana measure that allows individuals age 21 and older to grow marijuana and possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana in non-extract form and 15 grams of marijuana extract. A...more
I would love to hear from our award-winning readers if they are aware of a scenario when doing something illegal is legal because it’s illegal. Another federal court in California ruled last week that the dormant Commerce...more
Raising capital is always fraught with risk and uncertainty for any company. Those risks and uncertainties are magnified exponentially when it comes to raising capital for cannabis companies. Cannabis companies and potential...more
Over the last week, I have had water cooler-type conversations about President-elect Trump’s nominations to his would-be cabinet. Most of them have been policy-based and levelheaded. The nomination of Matt Gaetz as attorney...more
When you live in the cannabis world, you have to keep your head on a swivel. While most areas of the law see incremental changes over years — if not decades — cannabis developments come by the day if not the hour.
In the...more
No, it’s not (just) a cruel play on words. Last week, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced a much-anticipated public hearing on the proposal to reschedule marijuana from early December until the first quarter of...more
11/15/2024
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Cannabis Products ,
Controlled Substances Act ,
DEA ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Government Agencies ,
Marijuana ,
Public Comment ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Schedule I Drugs ,
Trump Administration
The title of this post comes, of course, from The Who’s classic track “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” This post analyzes whether there is cause for worry on the part of cannabis operators – both marijuana and hemp – under a second...more
11/12/2024
/ Agribusiness ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Farm Bill ,
Hemp ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Cultivation ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
New Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Trump Administration
I adore the film (and, as always, I stress the word “film”) Trading Places. It has it all: Eddie Murphy hitting his prime, a wonderfully smug Dan Akroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis doing her thing, and it’s all wrapped up in a...more
10/31/2024
/ Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Controlled Substances ,
CUTPA ,
Dispensaries ,
Farm Bill ,
Federal v State Law Application ,
Hemp ,
Hemp Related Businesses ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Litigation Strategies ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
State and Local Government
Legend has it that Alice Cooper originally titled his hit “Preschool’s Out Forever.” I made that up, but it occurred to me when I read a headline from Law360 that read “Under Pot Law, Preschool Isn’t ‘School,’ Ariz. Court...more
Believe it or not, I actually spend a lot of time deciding whether something is worth taking the time to write about. Cannabis news is developing as rapidly as any area of the law, and there are only so many hours in a day....more
As you read along here, try this mantra: Trust your eyes. Don’t allow yourself to be gaslit. You may recall from our previous post that we think the United States Supreme Court could overrule the marijuana provisions of the...more
Even the most responsible hemp operator should understand that it operates in a world full of risk. But I doubt many of them believe they might be accused of racketeering. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments...more
10/22/2024
/ Business Litigation ,
Cannabidiol (CBD) oil ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Corrupt Organizations Act (COA) ,
Dispensaries ,
Hemp ,
Hemp Related Businesses ,
Labeling ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Racketeering ,
RICO
The 1984 film The Terminator featured a deadly robot assassin who looked like a regular guy (if by “regular guy” you mean a young, jacked Arnold Schwarzenegger). The horror of it all was that the victims could not tell if the...more
When you work in the cannabis business, you get used to answering questions that don’t always make sense. One question we get most often is whether an employee can use a legal product that nonetheless may cause the employee...more
As she did just prior to becoming the Democratic Party nominee for president, Vice President Kamala Harris has announced her support for legalizing adult-use marijuana use at the federal level. Just to remind you of the...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
During this time of great tension and competition between the marijuana and hemp industries, it is refreshing to see efforts at compromise. The initial draft of the Cannabinoid Safety and Regulation Act, proposed last week by...more
10/7/2024
/ Cannabidiol (CBD) oil ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Dispensaries ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Hemp ,
Hemp Cultivation ,
Hemp Related Businesses ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
State and Local Government
It’s hard to be surprised when you’ve been writing and talking about government decisions about the cannabis industry over the past decade. But I’ll admit that my eyebrows raised when I read a recent letter from the solicitor...more
Cannabis consumers can be forgiven for feeling the need for a more liberal cannabis policy as they weather this seemingly unending campaign cycle. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump recently made clear how he...more
I can only assume that being a cannabis regulator is a challenging and usually thankless job. The laws are relatively new and constantly evolving. Operators are always pushing the science faster than regulators can promulgate...more
9/30/2024
/ Agribusiness ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Farm Bill ,
Hemp Cultivation ,
Hemp Related Businesses ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
State and Local Government ,
State Bans ,
State Legislatures