Mississippi is no stranger to criticism or being the butt of jokes alleging its inability or refusal to adapt with the times. And, while some of these stereotypes have some support, Mississippi is quietly silencing some if...more
Earlier this month, President Trump tapped “physician-turned wellness influencer” Casey Means as his nominee for surgeon general. Means has close ties to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Trump...more
5/21/2025
/ Cannabis Products ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Reform ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana ,
Physicians ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Public Health ,
Trump Administration
Another legislative session has come and gone in Mississippi (a limited, short special session is all but a certainty, as the Legislature passed no state budget), resulting in tweaks to the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act...more
5/7/2025
/ Cannabis Products ,
Hemp ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana ,
Medical Marijuana ,
New Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
State and Local Government ,
State Legislatures ,
THC
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
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
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
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
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
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
A revamped Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act heads to Gov. Tate Reeves’s desk after both chambers amended the law in several key respects, most notably to help improve patient count numbers that have created quite a bit of...more
Oh Daddy! It’s not “Rumours” or one of your “Dreams” – although it may be “Second Hand News” to our most knowledgeable readers: A federal court in Washington recently upheld the state’s cannabis residency requirement for...more
Texas is increasingly a purple political state. The motto of the state's capital city implores its citizens to keep it weird. Recent polling shows that Texans overwhelmingly support medical cannabis. Every one of Texas'...more
On January 16, 2023, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Regulatory Services Division (RSD) announced it would begin accepting new applications for medical cannabis dispensaries in Texas, under the Lone Star State’s...more
1/18/2023
/ Applications ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Dispensaries ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Medical Marijuana ,
New Legislation ,
Physicians ,
State and Local Government ,
State Legislatures ,
Texas
As we turn the calendar to another year, and because we run a cannabis law blog, it seems fitting to write about year one of Mississippi’s medical cannabis program and to preview what 2023 may have in store as the program...more
“Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness… Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
– George Santayana, The Life of Reason -
We originally aimed to quote Santana rather...more
Yesterday, President Joe Biden made two historic announcements which he described as steps to “end” the federal government’s “failed approach” to marijuana. First, he is issuing mass pardons for federal convictions of simple...more
10/7/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Cannabis Products ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Deregulation ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana ,
Presidential Pardons ,
Presidential Proclamations ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Wrongful Conviction
Welcome to the second installment of the Editors’ Roundtable, in which our editors – Whitt Steineker, Jay Wright, Hunter Robinson, and Slates Veazey – discuss cannabis issues in the news and take a stab at where the cannabis...more
10/5/2022
/ Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Dispensaries ,
Hemp Cultivation ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Cultivation ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
State and Local Government
This is the first in what we hope will be a regular feature where our editors – Whitt Steineker, Jay Wright, Hunter Robinson, and Slates Veazey – discuss cannabis issues in the news and take a stab at where the cannabis...more
In late 2018, my esteemed partner, Whitt Steineker, recruited me to join the firm’s newly formed Cannabis Industry team. Around that time, groups in Mississippi were actively seeking signatures to get a ballot initiative in...more
May 4th celebrates Star Wars, and May 5th is Cinco de Mayo. While not as popular, May 3rd still likely means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. But, in Mississippi, in 2022, May 3rd was a date circled on...more
5/6/2022
/ Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Deadlines ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Licenses ,
Local Ordinance ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Municipalities ,
Opt-Outs ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
State and Local Government ,
Zoning Laws