If you haven’t seen Ted Lasso, you need to do that immediately (after reading this). In the final episode of the first season, Ted Lasso – an American football coach hired, for reasons that don’t matter here, to coach an English football team – who is played exquisitely by an endearing Jason Sudeikis – notes that he has heard the expression “it’s the hope that kills you” when describing the trials and tribulations of English football. I will leave my thoughts on the merits of relegation and promotion in American sports for another forum. 

It’s a classically English turn of phrase, but Ted rejects the premise. Ted says “I disagree, you know? I think it’s lack of hope that comes and gets you. See, I believe in hope.” As all Budding Trends readers know (and there are tens of you around the world), I couldn’t help but think Lasso was channeling the line from Shawshank: “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things.”

I suspect those who have known me for a while wouldn’t consider me to be a natural optimist. And years of litigating cases probably hasn’t done anything to change that tendency. I understand why those applicants and would-be patients in the Alabama medical cannabis program would be bereft of hope these days. After all, it has been nearly four years since the Alabama medical cannabis program was enacted by the legislature and not one patient has received medical cannabis.

But somehow in the face of years of advising clients and potential patients going through the hell that can be waiting on lawmakers, regulators, and courts to get a medical cannabis program off the ground, I became an optimist. At first, I’m sure it was little more than putting on a brave face for disappointed, frustrated, and even angry folks wondering why they couldn’t simply get resolution to their dreams. Perhaps this was the “fake it ‘til you make it” phase of my journey, but over time I actually became optimistic that Alabama would be able to launch a medical cannabis program that could provide relief to Alabamians so desperate for a different kind of therapy for what ails them.

I know, maybe as much as anyone in Alabama, how arduous and costly it has been to stand by while this process has played out. I have friends and clients holding licenses issued by the State of Alabama to cultivate and process marijuana. They are wondering whether the countless hours, dollars, and worry have been worth it, and similarly whether it is worth pouring the same into an unknown future. And I have other friends and clients in the integrated and dispensary arena feeling stuck in a regulatory and judicial morass that feels like wading through quicksand.

And, if we’re being honest with each other as friends should, I have left untold fees on the table choosing not to take a side in the long-running litigation because I choose not to take sides when I have clients with different goals and wishes.

For all of these reasons, I am incredibly empathetic to all involved in the seemingly endless delays in the program. But I absolutely believe that Alabama is poised to launch its medical program. Yeah, this is coming from a guy who relies on pop cultural references and jam band quotes. But that guy has never lied to you and has always done his best to take the broader view and make calculated judgments about the facts as they evolve and the future. 

I don’t have a crystal ball, and I don’t have a monopoly on predictions. But as I write this, I remain optimistic that Alabama’s medical cannabis program will launch, and it will do so sooner than many believe. 

As Coach Lasso instructed: “Onward. Forward.”

Thanks, as always, for stopping by. Your friends at Budding Trends will be right here.