Now that the dust is starting to settle on the recent news that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has recommended to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) that marijuana be moved from Schedule I to Schedule III under federal law, it is important to understand the implications of rescheduling marijuana and

According to a report from Bloomberg News, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is officially recommending to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) that marijuana be moved from Schedule I to Schedule III under federal law. The move follows a directive issued by President Biden last year that Secretary of Health

Last week in a small hearing room in a House office building, the House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services held a hearing titled “Hemp in the Modern World: The Years long Wait for FDA Action.” The hearing, billed as a “first-of-its-kind,” allowed lawmakers and hemp industry experts to discuss issues

In the summer of August 2022, and again in February 2023, a North Carolina attorney wrote to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to ask about the status of certain cannabinoids under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). His question was whether THC acetate ester (THCO), a lab-created substance used to synthetically derive THC delta-8 and delta-9

In the pilot episode of NBC’s Parks and Recreation, Leslie Knope, deputy director of the Pawnee Parks and Recreation Department, promises her constituents she will fill in “the pit” that has become a hazard to her community and will build a park in its place. Despite the roadblocks and red tape, Leslie delivers on

FDA warning letters are nothing new in the cannabis industry. In fact, we here at Budding Trends have covered this topic a number of times (here, here, and here). Not resigned to playing the hits, however, the FDA issued a new set of warning letters on November 21 that may signal

For decades, the federal government only allowed scientists to research marijuana grown on the campus of the University of Mississippi. While Mississippi-grown cannabis will continue to be the subject of federally sanctioned research, the Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act, which President Biden signed into law on December 2, 2022, will significantly expand the

Attorney General Merrick Garland has reiterated that the Department of Justice will not prioritize prosecuting marijuana use, a position that Garland expressed during his confirmation hearings. In remarks in front of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on April 26, 2022, Garland held firm in this position, stating that prosecuting the possession of marijuana is “not

Cannabis operators (from marijuana to hemp-derived products such as CBD) often get the sense they are one of the central targets of the federal government’s reach. But they are not in the same league lately as the COVID-19 virus. Earlier this month, those worlds collided.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal