WeedPress: The Paper Trail

DOJ says DEA has begun registering medical cannabis dispensaries in seven states, including South Dakota, but it named no businesses and gave no state counts. DEA’s Oct. 30 list of timely applicants shows 43 South Dakota dispensary entries against 62 licensed dispensaries. Here’s what that gap can and can’t mean, and why DEA’s Nov. 29 supply-chain date matters to patients.

By Jason Karimi, Publisher

The U.S. Department of Justice says the Drug Enforcement Administration has begun issuing registrations to medical cannabis dispensaries in seven states, including South Dakota, under the attorney general’s April order placing state-licensed medical marijuana in Schedule III.¹ It has not named any business or said how many registrations were issued in South Dakota.¹ A DEA list of timely applicants, dated Oct. 30, shows fewer South Dakota dispensary entries than the state’s Aug. 27 public list shows licensed dispensaries.²,³,⁴ That is a list of timely applicants, not registrants, and it has no business names.²

That gap could matter to patients because of a date in DEA’s guidance: Nov. 29, 2026. By then, DEA says, timely applicants are expected to have “compliant supply chains.”⁵ The guidance says timely applicants and registrants may not “lawfully engage in any schedule III medical marijuana activities” with businesses that did not apply in time until those businesses become DEA registrants, subject to limited exceptions described below.⁵ WeedPress has sent questions to DEA and the South Dakota Department of Health and requested responses by Nov. 4.

What DEA announced

On Friday, Oct. 30, the U.S. Department of Justice said DEA had issued registrations to “more than 900 dispensaries across Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.”¹ The department called it “the first phase” of a “phased registration process.”¹

The announcement did not name any business and did not give a count for any state.¹ The DOJ announcement described registrations for dispensaries only. DOJ said applications from manufacturers and distributors, the businesses that supply dispensaries, “require additional review, including facility inspections, production controls, and quota determinations.”¹ The announcement did not say DEA had registered any manufacturers or distributors in any state.

DOJ also said that “State licensure alone does not automatically grant federal registration.”¹

What DEA’s list shows

DEA’s Diversion Control Division has posted a downloadable list, dated Oct. 30, of “Medical Marijuana Timely Applicants” on its Medical Marijuana Information webpage.² It is a list of timely applicants, not registrants. DEA’s Oct. 30 guidance document describes timely applicants as those that submitted a complete application, with the fee, between April 28 and June 26, 2026, the 60-day window created by the April rule.⁵

Each entry has three fields: a two-letter state code, a business activity (dispensary, manufacturer or distributor) and an application control number.² There are no names, cities, DEA registration numbers or dates. DEA says the file is updated daily and “may change as Timely Applicants are granted DEA registrations, withdraw their applications for DEA registration, or are no longer considered Timely Applicants for any other reason.”²

WeedPress downloaded the Oct. 30 file twice early Oct. 31. Nationwide, it had 6,983 entries; South Dakota had 55. The two downloads were byte-for-byte identical.³

The South Dakota Department of Health’s public list of licensed establishments, last updated Aug. 27, 2026, gives these counts:⁴

Category	SD DOH licensed establishments (Aug. 27, 2026)	DEA timely-applicant entries for SD (Oct. 30, 2026)
Dispensary	62	43
Cultivation and manufacturing (DEA has no separate “cultivator” category; see below)	30 cultivation + 14 manufacturing = 44	10 manufacturer
Distributor	No separate SD license category	2
Testing lab	1	Not covered by this list

DEA’s rule has no separate “cultivator” category.⁶ A registered “manufacturer” may “cultivate, produce, process, package, label, and transfer marijuana.”⁶ So a South Dakota cultivation or manufacturing licensee that applied would appear on DEA’s list as a manufacturer.

What the gap can and can’t mean

There are 19 fewer South Dakota dispensary entries on DEA’s Oct. 30 timely-applicant list than there are licensed dispensaries on DOH’s Aug. 27 public list.³,⁴ That number alone does not show that any South Dakota business failed to apply, applied late or was denied. DEA has published no names, so no entry can be matched to a business.

Possible explanations include the following. None of them can be tied to any named South Dakota business from DEA’s public file.

• Some entries may have dropped off after registration, depending on how DEA maintains the file. DEA says the list may change as applicants “are granted DEA registrations.”² DEA has not said whether the Oct. 30 file includes or excludes dispensary applicants registered that day. WeedPress has asked.
• Counting differences. DOH lists licensed establishments, and DEA lists applications. A law firm’s summary of DEA’s portal instructions says the dispensary application is filed per location.⁷ DEA has not explained how it counts businesses that hold several licenses.
• Changes since August. DOH’s public list is two months older than DEA’s file, so changes in locations, ownership or license status are possible.
• Late or no application. Some licensees could have applied after June 26, which would be too late to be “timely,” or may not have applied at all.
• Withdrawal or other loss of timely-applicant status. DEA’s guidance says timely status ends for an applicant who withdraws, who receives “a Final Order denying the application,” or who lacks a required state license.⁵

WeedPress has not found any South Dakota denial or proposed denial in the Federal Register or in news reports it reviewed. One reported adverse action under the new framework is an order to show cause, a proposed denial, sent to In-Dispensary in Minneapolis.⁸ According to Marijuana Moment, which cited the Minnesota Star Tribune, DEA’s stated reasons were tied to Minnesota law, including the state’s combined medical and adult-use licenses.⁸ A WeedPress search of the Federal Register API for DEA documents published from April 1 through Oct. 31 that mention “medical marijuana” or “1301.13(k)” found no Federal Register final order denying a state-licensed medical marijuana applicant.⁹

On the supply side, DEA’s list shows 10 South Dakota manufacturer entries and two distributor entries. DOH’s Aug. 27 public list shows 44 licensed cultivation and manufacturing establishments.³,⁴ Again, DOH’s list shows that some companies hold more than one license,⁴ so this comparison cannot say how many suppliers are missing, if any. It does not show that any supplier failed to apply.

Why Nov. 29 matters to patients

The April rule lets timely applicants keep operating under their state licenses, within the rule’s terms, while DEA reviews their applications. Any applicant that applied within 60 days “may engage in the manufacture, distribution, and/or dispensing of marijuana or products containing marijuana for medical purposes in conformity with a state-issued license during the pendency of the application.”⁶ Anyone else who is required to register falls under the general rule: “No person required to be registered shall engage in any activity for which registration is required until the application for registration is granted.”¹⁰

DEA’s Oct. 30 guidance addresses supply chains for timely applicants and registrants.⁵ Timely applicants and registrants “may not lawfully engage in any schedule III medical marijuana activities with entities that did not complete an application for DEA registration between April 28, 2026, to June 26, 2026 … until those entities become DEA registrants.”⁵ Doing so “could be potential grounds for denial of a Timely Applicant’s application or revocation of a certificate of registration.”⁵ The guidance then sets the date: “Timely Applicants are expected to complete these activities and establish compliant supply chains no later than November 29, 2026.”⁵

The guidance also describes two qualifications. Timely dispenser and distributor applicants “may continue to possess, dispense, and distribute existing inventories” acquired before the guidance was issued.⁵ DEA also “does not intend to penalize” sending de minimis test samples to an in-state lab that isn’t DEA-registered, but only where using a DEA-registered lab would violate state law.⁵ DEA says the guidance does “not have the force and effect of law.”⁵

Here is the patient-access question this raises, in WeedPress’s analysis: under DEA’s nonbinding guidance, a South Dakota dispensary that is a timely applicant or registrant may have to stop buying new inventory from any South Dakota grower or manufacturer that is not a timely applicant or registrant. If that happens, patients could see fewer products, or certain brands could disappear from shelves, once existing stock runs out. Whether that happens depends on facts DEA hasn’t released, namely which South Dakota suppliers are on the list.

Patients who want to know can ask their dispensary two things: whether it is a DEA registrant or timely applicant, and whether its suppliers are DEA registrants or timely applicants. DEA’s guidance says businesses should document their trading partners’ status. That includes copies of partners’ DEA application confirmations or registration certificates, with control numbers checked on DEA’s website.⁵

Questions pending with DEA and DOH

Shortly after 3 a.m. CT Oct. 31, WeedPress sent written questions to DEA’s media office and to DOH’s Medical Cannabis Program, requesting responses by 5 p.m. CT Wednesday, Nov. 4. Responses are pending.

DEA was asked:

• how many South Dakota dispensaries were registered, and how many in each of the seven states;
• whether it will publish registrant names;
• whether registered businesses are removed from the timely-applicant list;
• how many South Dakota applicants have received orders to show cause, been denied or withdrawn;
• the status of South Dakota manufacturer and distributor applications; and
• whether the 55 South Dakota entries represent all South Dakota applicants or only those DEA considers timely.

DOH was asked:

• whether DEA has contacted it to verify state licenses;
• whether it knows how many licensees applied or were registered;
• for a current establishment list; and
• whether it will issue guidance to licensees about the Nov. 29 date.

A WeedPress Freedom of Information Act request to DEA, filed Oct. 29, seeks records on South Dakota applicants and registrants dating to April 28. It is pending. WeedPress plans to check DEA’s list daily and report changes in South Dakota entries.

South Dakota operators: If you can share your DEA status (registered, timely applicant, pending or other), contact weedpressnewstips@gmail.com.