Is Cannabis Legal in My State? (Updated 26th Sep 2026)

Hayley Smith is the founder of CBD Incubator and leads the site's writing and editorial direction, bringing over a decade of professional cannabis writing and hands-on growing experience to everything it covers.

Hayley holds a degree in business and communications and has been a freelance writer since 2014, specializing in cannabis writing not long after — a focus she's held for over a decade now. She's been a CBD and cannabis consumer and advocate for over 20 years, and that personal history feeds directly into how deep she goes on a subject. She's endlessly fascinated by the plant itself — the science behind it, how it interacts with the body, how it affects different people in different ways, and everything else that comes with genuinely understanding cannabis rather than just writing about it.

She picked up hands-on growing experience through her husband — the two met in 2016, when he was already farming, and she spent time working the farm alongside him while continuing to write freelance. That combination of years of research and writing plus real cultivation experience is what she brings to every review and guide on the site.

Her reputation is built on a straightforward, honest writing style. She spends hours poring over research papers and lab reports so readers don't have to, and tries to present what she finds in a more accessible, easy-to-digest format. In an industry that's still largely unregulated, she believes that matters - her goal is to help readers make better, more discerning choices about what they're actually buying, rather than navigating a crowded, inconsistent market alone.

Outside of CBD Incubator, Hayley is an animal lover who enjoys travel, hiking, swimming, and yoga, and has a soft spot for documentaries on space, quantum physics, and the natural world.