State AG Pulse | An Early Peek At the 2026 State AG Elections
Quick Guide to Administrative Hearings
Solicitors General Insights: The Tale of Two Washingtons — Regulatory Oversight Podcast
Cannabis Law Now Podcast - Cannabis in the Show Me State: An Interview with BeLeaf Medical's Mitch Meyers
Nonprofit Quick Tip: State Filings in Maryland and Pennsylvania
State AG Pulse | A FAIR Go For NY Consumers
Navigating Renewable Energy: Insights from the ACP Siting and Permitting Conference - Energy Law Insights
New Executive Order Targets Disparate Impact Claims Nationwide - #WorkforceWednesday® - Employment Law This Week®
Project Catalyst: An Economic Development Podcast | Episode 14: Shaping North Carolina’s Economic Future with Secretary of Commerce Lee Lilley
Nonprofit Quick Tip: State Filings in Virginia and West Virginia
ESG Essentials: What You Need To Know Now - Episode 19 - Power Struggles: Federal vs. State Authority in Energy Law
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez – Innovative Approach to Safety
Business Better Podcast Episode - Manufacturing Moment: How State Associations Navigate the Policy Landscape
CHPS Podcast Episode 2: Bitcoin in the Halls of Power
AGG Talks: Development Podcast Series - Episode 1: Powering Georgia: Energy Resilience, Data Centers, and Clean Innovation
Taking the Pulse, A Health Care and Life Sciences Video Podcast | Episode 229: Public Health in South Carolina with Dr. Edward Simmer of SC Dept of Public Health
Nonprofit Quick Tip: State Filings in South Dakota and North Dakota
Bridging the Gap: How CivicReach is Revolutionizing Government Customer Service
Project Catalyst: An Economic Development Podcast | Episode 13: Economic Development in Rural Alabama with Valerie Gray and Lori Huguley of VaLor Strategies
Nonprofit Quick Tip: State Filings in Wisconsin and Minnesota
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
“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
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
Alabama has enrolled legislation regulating the sale of consumable products (including beverages, edible products, and topical creams) containing THC or CBD derived from hemp, and has designated the Alabama ABC Board as the...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
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
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
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
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
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
“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
Over the past nearly two years, I have been talking to friends, clients, and basically anyone at parties about the slow progress (if I might be permitted to use that word in this context) of the Alabama medical cannabis...more
The Alabama medical cannabis program has been FUBAR for a while now, but there was at least some good news for two applicants last week....more
A recent lawsuit in Alabama, challenging the award of medical cannabis licenses by regulators, underscores the potential pitfalls in licensing regimes where applicants are selected based on specific enumerated factors. Below,...more
During a hearing today on SB276, a proposal released only yesterday that would fundamentally change the landscape of Alabama’s nascent medical cannabis program, would have probably been less one-sided if the proposal called...more
Well, it’s here. Late yesterday afternoon Sens. Tim Melson and David Sessions introduced the long-awaited “legislative fix” to help get Alabama’s long-stalled Alabama medical cannabis licensing program off the ground. The...more
The Alabama Medical Cannabis licensing process has officially entered Groundhog Day territory. After previously directing that the AMCC participate in limited, expedited discovery (including the deposition of up to six...more
Yesterday the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission(AMCC) awarded the five coveted licenses in the Integrated Facility category. The five licenses were awarded to: 1. Trulieve AL 2. Sustainable Alabama 3. Wagon Trail...more
I feel like Bill Murray’s character in Groundhog Day. I keep writing the same blog post in some way heralding the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission’s awarding of licenses to would-be operators. Well, on Friday it happened...more
In the coming, frenzied 90 days, the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission likely will save or ruin the future of medical cannabis in Alabama... Last Thursday, the AMCC voted to adopt an emergency rule that, by its terms,...more
Maybe it was inevitable. Anyone who has seen another state award competitive licenses for a limited number of cannabis operators knew well that Alabama’s process would result in litigation. That was not an indictment of...more
I have literally (yes, literally) lost track of the number of times that the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission or a court has ordered a halt to the AMCC’s efforts to issue licenses to medical cannabis operators. If you...more
Last Thursday was License Award Day 2.0 for the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Nineteen of the applicants awarded licenses in June, before the process was halted due...more
In a court hearing yesterday in the Montgomery County Circuit Court, it appeared that the staff of the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission was prepared to move forward announcing licensees at its meeting on Thursday and that...more