It’s that time of year again. Our annual round-up featuring some of the most read content on Budding Trends in the past year. This year’s edition has a little something for everyone: marijuana, hemp, mushrooms, state law, federal law, banking, intellectual property, and more!
Before we dive right in, we want to plug our January 14, 2026, webinar looking at the upcoming legislative sessions in Alabama and Mississippi. We’ll have some of your favorite Budding Trends contributors as well as regulators from both states on hand to talk about what we might look forward to in the respective statehouses next Spring. Click HERE to register for this free event.
Is “Compromise” a Four-Letter Word? Alabama Legislature Passes Comprehensive Consumable Hemp Reform Bill
May 8, 2025
“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 products in Alabama, I’ve been looking at some quotes about compromising and it turns out there’s some pretty good stuff from some pretty interesting folks.
Zig Ziglar, a son of Coffee County, Alabama, (shoutout to my mom and her people) once warned that one should “be careful not to compromise what you want most for what you want now.”
Mick Jagger wrote: “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime you’ll find you get what you need.”
What You Need to Know: Texas Substantially Expands Medical Cannabis Program
August 19, 2025
Everything’s bigger in Texas, unless you’re talking about the medical cannabis program. It’s no secret that Texas has the potential to be a behemoth in the space, but for years, Texas’ medical cannabis program has lagged behind other states. At the same time, Texas’ booming hemp industry is fighting for survival.
Texas legislators took a big step towards growing its medical cannabis program last legislative session, and today we discuss (1) new opportunities to apply to be a cannabis dispensing organization under the Texas Compassionate Use Program (TCUP), (2) how the latest legislative session changed TCUP under HB 46, and (3) what new Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) rules are coming next.
Joint Effort: Why a New Crop of House Members, a New Speaker, and Continued Bipartisan Support Could Finally Light the Way for Medical Marijuana in N.C.
March 19, 2025
In November 2023, we pondered whether 2024 might be “the year” for medical marijuana legalization in North Carolina. Well, it wasn’t.
Why, you ask? How can a state whose population has expressed overwhelming bipartisan support for medical marijuana legalization still have nothing to show for it? How can a state whose Senate has shown overwhelming bipartisan support (see Senate Bill 3 and Senate Bill 711) for medical marijuana legalization still have nothing to show for it?
Under former House Speaker Tim Moore (R), whose tenure ended earlier this year when he transitioned to serving as a United States congressman, North Carolina Republicans adhered to an informal yet influential guideline: A bill would not reach the House floor unless a majority of Republican House members supported it. Because the 2023-2024 session contained 72 Republicans (out of 120 total seats), 37 Republican supporters were needed for any bill to secure a House vote. In the current session (2025-2026), one less Republican was elected to the House, meaning there are now 71 Republicans, with 36 Republicans creating a “majority of the majority.” This unwritten rule has been the key obstacle to medical marijuana legislation in North Carolina despite its clear bipartisan support.
Georgia Legislature Considering Substantial Overhaul to Medical Marijuana, Hemp Laws
March 12, 2025
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 country during legislative sessions, there’s cannabis reform afoot in Georgia. Before we dig into it, perhaps a brief vocabulary lesson is in order. “Cannabis” is essentially a scientific term that refers to the cannabis plant. “Marijuana” and “hemp” are legal terms distinguishing between strains of the cannabis plant. At the federal level, for example, “hemp” has been defined as a strain of the cannabis plant containing less than 0.3% delta-9 THC on a dry weight basis.
One more background fact. Marijuana is, for the moment, a Schedule I substance under the federal Controlled Substances Act. That means the manufacture, possession, and sale of marijuana is illegal in every state. There is an effort underway to reschedule marijuana to Schedule III, which would have interesting potential implications to marijuana operations. Still, as of the time of this writing, marijuana remains Schedule I.
What Means Means for Mushrooms and Marijuana: How Might Trump’s Surgeon General Nominee Shift the Conversation for Cannabis and Psychedelics?
May 21, 2025
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 has touted her “impeccable” Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) credentials. We’ve written previously on what impact Trump’s second presidency could have on American cannabis and psychedelic policy, but Means’ public statements on cannabis and psychedelics got us pondering on how she may shift the conversation.
How Will the Cannabis World Look When Marijuana Is Rescheduled?
December 12, 2025
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 quote from “Run Like an Antelope” but then it hit me: Maybe we should give some thought to a more high-minded discussion about the practical implications of marijuana rescheduling. (Editor’s note: This exchange did not actually happen.) So, I guess set the gear shift for the high gear of your soul, and let’s dive in.
It has been said that our greatest hopes and our worst fears are seldom realized. I think the recent efforts by DEA to reschedule marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III is a good example of both. Those looking for news that marijuana is soon to be freely available nationwide will be disappointed, as, we suspect, will those who fear that rescheduling will immediately destroy the existing marijuana industry. It’s like Tom Petty reminded us, “most things I worry about, never happen anyway.”
Predictions: 2025 to Be a Very Big Year in Cannabis
January 6, 2025
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 future. But here are a few of our thoughts about what the cannabis world may look like in 2025.
There you have it, folks. Another year in the books. Thanks to all of our loyal, award-winning readers and to those who stop by on occasion. All are welcome here. Stay tuned for our upcoming post predicting the cannabis landscape in 2026 (buckle up), and don’t forget to register for our webinar on January 14, 2026.
Thanks for stopping by.