They paved paradise and put up a parking lot. That’s been the tenor of what I’ve heard and read from stakeholders in the Alabama hemp industry in response to the enactment of comprehensive hemp reform legislation earlier this...more
5/28/2025
/ Alabama ,
Cannabis Products ,
Hemp ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Manufacturers ,
Marijuana ,
New Legislation ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Retailers ,
State and Local Government ,
State Legislatures
Often wrong, never in doubt. That’s our promise here at Budding Trends. A little over a year ago, we wrote these words: “DEA will reschedule marijuana from Schedule 1 to Schedule III.” We later acknowledged we (may have)...more
On Monday — the day after the holiest of days on the cannabis calendar and just days after a hearing during which the Montgomery County Circuit Court heard arguments about whether an emergency rule promulgated by the AMCC in...more
As the hallowed cannabis holiday for stoners-turned-business-entrepreneurs falls upon us, we find ourselves in the shifting sands of change in the cannabis industry as usual. Not surprisingly, many states have seen...more
4/20/2025
/ Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Dispensaries ,
Government Agencies ,
Hemp ,
Hemp Related Businesses ,
Legalization ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Medical Marijuana ,
New Legislation ,
Political Campaigns ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
State and Local Government ,
State Legislatures
There’s a great scene in the movie Wall Street when the up-and-coming Charlie Sheen (pre-Tiger Blood and now that I think about it maybe the precursor to the “winning!” mantra that seems to resonate today) is playing the role...more
4/1/2025
/ Alabama ,
Appellate Courts ,
Government Agencies ,
Judicial Proceedings ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Licensing Rules ,
Marijuana ,
Medical Marijuana ,
New Legislation ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
State and Local Government
I’ve had Georgia on my mind these days. I needed to get that out immediately because otherwise I would have been hearing that song in my head the entire time I was writing.
As is the case in many capitals around the...more
3/12/2025
/ Cannabis Products ,
Georgia ,
Hemp ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Medical Marijuana ,
New Legislation ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Reform ,
State and Local Government ,
State Legislatures
It takes a big person to admit when they are wrong. But I’ll raise my hand and say I was wrong when I predicted that the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals would rule in favor of the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission in late...more
Well, it’s officially crazy season. An annual tradition in the Alabama statehouse since the inception of Alabama’s medical cannabis program, last week we saw a flurry of cannabis-related bills introduced with great fanfare...more
Ronald Reagan famously asked voters, on the eve of the 1980 presidential election, to ask themselves whether they were better off than they were four years ago. It was a powerful question that asked Americans to take stock of...more
If you haven’t seen Ted Lasso, you need to do that immediately (after reading this). In the final episode of the first season, Ted Lasso – an American football coach hired, for reasons that don’t matter here, to coach an...more
What if I told you that you could get a license to test medical cannabis in Alabama this July? Now is that something you might be interested in?
Lost amidst the torrent of confusing messages and general circus surrounding...more
Longtime readers of Budding Trends (and there are dozens of you) know that I have been saying over and over recently that – as counterintuitive as it may sound – the fastest way to get Alabama’s medical cannabis program...more
2/13/2025
/ Alabama ,
Appeals ,
Appellate Courts ,
Jurisdiction ,
Licensing Rules ,
Litigation Strategies ,
Marijuana ,
Medical Marijuana ,
New Legislation ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Regulatory Reform ,
State and Local Government
Advocates and stakeholders in the medical cannabis world of Alabama are desperate. And as it is so often when we are faced with a desperate situation, we make well-intentioned but ultimately flawed decisions....more
2/12/2025
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Alabama ,
Cannabis Products ,
Licenses ,
Marijuana ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
State and Local Government ,
State Legislatures
“The overhead view is of me in a maze.”
I don’t know what it says about me that the great Trey Anastasio and Tom Marshall of Phish fame were able to encapsulate my feelings so neatly – and the feelings of so many...more
1/28/2025
/ Alabama ,
Appeals ,
Appellate Courts ,
Business Licenses ,
Compliance ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Legalization ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
State and Local Government
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
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
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
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