We’ve written before that with rescheduling, with all of the excitement and pomp and circumstance that came with its announcement in the last year of the Biden administration, the whole thing was beginning to look like it may...more
7/29/2025
/ Cannabis Products ,
Controlled Substances Act ,
DEA ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement ,
Government Agencies ,
Marijuana ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Schedule I Drugs ,
Trump Administration
What. Are. We. Doing. Here?
The latest from Capitol Hill is a doozy:
A congressional committee has approved a spending bill that contains provisions to block the Justice Department from rescheduling marijuana. The...more
7/22/2025
/ Congressional Committees ,
Controlled Substances Act ,
DEA ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Budget ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Political Campaigns ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Trump Administration
During the course of the most recent session when the Alabama Legislature gutted Alabama’s consumable hemp program, I had the opportunity to hear from certain individuals with thoughtful, nuanced views on the pros and cons of...more
7/9/2025
/ Alabama ,
Cannabis Products ,
Controlled Substances ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Hemp ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana ,
New Legislation ,
Pets ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
State Legislatures
These are remarkable times in what has been a remarkable, albeit relative to other industries, remarkably short life cycle for the cannabis industry....more
6/25/2025
/ Agribusiness ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Farm Bill ,
Hemp ,
Marijuana ,
New Legislation ,
New Regulations ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agencies ,
Regulatory Reform
As expected by many, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration proposed a permanent ban on many of the hemp products available in the state, as reported in SFGate (emphasis added):
The California Department of Public Health...more
One of my favorite quotes from Justice Potter Stewart (naturally, a Supreme Court justice writing about watching pornography is my favorite) is “[f]airness is what justice really is.” The Alabama attorney general has an...more
6/13/2025
/ Alabama ,
Cannabis Products ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Enforcement ,
Hemp ,
Marijuana ,
New Legislation ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Rulemaking Process ,
State and Local Government ,
State Attorneys General
“Equal is not fair, and fair is not equal. Equal is obtainable but fair is not.”
The Montgomery County Circuit Court overseeing the launch of Alabama’s medical cannabis program has an interesting dilemma on its hands. It...more
6/10/2025
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Alabama ,
Appeals ,
Appellate Courts ,
Cannabis Products ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Judicial Authority ,
Licensing Rules ,
Marijuana ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
State and Local Government ,
Statutory Interpretation
Most of the annual state legislative sessions have ended or are nearing an end, and it would be an understatement to say that the hemp industry has ever experienced a more widespread and seemingly coordinated effort to roll...more
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
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
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
Are cannabis beverages poised to take over the market for intoxicating beverages from alcoholic beverages, or are they simply the latest fad set to give way to alcoholic beverages’ century of dominance? A decade ago, the...more
“Compromise” sometimes gets a bad rap. And history teaches us that there can be bad compromises. But as your resident glass-is-half-full contributor who has also been closely following debate over access to consumable hemp...more
5/9/2025
/ Alabama ,
Cannabis Products ,
Government Agencies ,
Hemp ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Licensing Rules ,
Marijuana ,
New Legislation ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
State Legislatures
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
As you might have guessed from the title of this post, we are returning to cover new developments in the United States v. Sirois case. A few months ago, the First Circuit released an opinion that we discussed in an earlier...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
To paraphrase the legendary Dave Chapelle, in the midst of impersonating Rick James, “cannabis is a hell of a drug.” Thankfully I don’t mean that in the same sense as Mr. Chapelle/James did. I mean that marijuana and its...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
For the hemp industry, it appears the beatings will continue until morale improves. Following the lead of a number of other states in recent years, the Alabama Legislature is set to consider a measure that would eliminate...more