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 essentially all non-industrial hemp in the state.

Meet Alabama Senate Bill 132. This proposal, in its current form

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 launched is through the court system.

At times did it feel like I was trying to

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.

Alabama Senate Bill 72 dropped last week. It would, among other things, (1) expand the total number of integrated licenses from five

Anyone who thought that the momentum towards federal liberalization of marijuana would be a straight line found themselves with a cold dash of water to the face. Late last week Republican senators filed a bill, entitled the “No Deductions for Marijuana Businesses Act,” which would preserve a punitive federal tax policy that bars cannabis

“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 participants in the Alabama Medical Cannabis licensing program – about where we

You’ve probably seen the reports of the United States Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals’ January 7, 2025 opinion upholding a Virginia law that regulates consumable hemp products. I planned to put up a blog post soon after the opinion was handed down, and I will still summarize the holding here. But the delay in writing

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

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

2024 was a banner year for cannabis lawmakers and business operators. From Kamala Harris advocating for marijuana reforms to California’s clash of titans between hemp and marijuana markets, there was no shortage of drama in the cannabis industry. Vice President Harris vocally championed marijuana legalization on various platforms, emphasizing its importance for social justice. Meanwhile

While not enough blogs these days quote Toad the Wet Sprocket lyrics, a recent decision from a federal appellate court holding that a would-be employee can suffer negative employment consequences for cannabis use even when state law says exactly the opposite reminded me of this one:

And it’s hard to rely on my own