As usual, Tom Petty was spot on when he sang, “the waiting is the hardest part.” Marijuana rescheduling has tested that proposition all year, and this week it was retested. We’ve spent a lot of ink this year on what happens after marijuana rescheduling lands, on advertising rules, on data breaches, and on
Back in May, I wrote a piece predicting that Schedule III rescheduling would flip the first prong of the Central Hudson commercial speech test for state-licensed medical marijuana operators. My thought at the time was that speech proposing a transaction in a federally lawful product concerns “lawful activity,” and that term has been the death
Groucho Marx famously said, “I wouldn’t want to belong to a club that would have me as a member.” For years, many state-legal medical marijuana operators pleaded to be allowed into the club, essentially making this promise: “Bring us into the federal fold, and we’ll play by federal rules.”
Having finally gotten that wish, at
A Michigan marijuana grower won a $31.8 million jury verdict for breach of contract… then watched it disappear on appeal. On September 10, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit held that federal courts cannot enforce a contract to buy and sell marijuana because performing the deal required the parties to commit
In the iconic halftime scene of Friday Night Lights, Coach Gary Gaines (played with a charming ferocity the way only Billy Bob Thornton could muster) looks his team in the eyes and tells them they have exactly “two more quarters and that’s it.” He challenges them to live in that high-stakes moment with “clear eyes
Every good legal thriller needs a twist, and this one’s a doozy: The DEA — the agency that’s spent over 50 years playing prohibition’s final boss — is now the one arguing marijuana doesn’t belong in Schedule I anymore, while the seven groups it hand-picked to participate in the hearing are the ones fighting to
There’s a scene near the end of every heist movie where the crew finally cracks the vault and it’s empty. Somebody already got there first, or the money was never really in there to begin with. Four months into medical marijuana’s move to Schedule III, that’s starting to feel like the right metaphor for cannabis
If you’ve ever watched a bracket-style competition — March Madness, a baking show, take your pick — you know the format: a lot of contestants, a panel that has seen it all, and weeks that feel a lot longer to the people waiting on a decision than to the people watching from home. Substitute “medical
If you’ve been following Alabama’s medical cannabis saga, you know the state has mastered a very particular genre of drama: license gets awarded, license gets sued, license gets stayed, repeat. Well, the next chapter starts Monday, July 27, 2026, at 9 a.m., when the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission’s designated hearing officer, the Hon. Bernard
Longtime Budding Trends readers know we try to lead each post with a bit of pop culture or witty turn of phrase. This is one of those posts where the hook took longer to find than the law. Turns out there isn’t a great classic rock anthem about assisted living facilities’ admissions policies. So, we’re