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