WeedPress: The Paper Trail

DEA’s medical marijuana timely-applicant file dated Nov. 2 lists one South Dakota dispensary entry, down from 43 on Oct. 30. DEA says the list may change as applicants are registered, withdraw or are no longer considered timely for other reasons, so the change alone doesn’t show which happened.

By Jason Karimi, Publisher

The Drug Enforcement Administration’s medical marijuana timely-applicant list dated Nov. 2 shows one South Dakota dispensary entry, down from 43 in the file dated Oct. 30.¹,²,³ The list does not say why the other 42 entries are gone, and their absence alone does not show whether any of those applicants were registered, withdrew, were denied or left the list for another reason.

DEA says the list “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.”⁴ The files give no reason for any change.¹,²

This is a follow-up to WeedPress’s Oct. 31 report comparing the 43 South Dakota dispensary entries on DEA’s Oct. 30 timely-applicant list with WeedPress’s count of 62 dispensaries on the South Dakota Department of Health’s Aug. 27 list.⁵,⁶

What changed

DEA posts the file as a “complete list of Medical Marijuana Timely Applicants” and says it is updated daily.⁴ Each entry has only a state, a business activity and an application control number. The files have no business names.⁴,¹,²

WeedPress compared the file dated Oct. 30, downloaded Oct. 31, with the file dated Nov. 2, downloaded at 9 a.m. CT Monday, Nov. 2.¹,²,³ A WeedPress download at 4:29 p.m. CDT Oct. 31 still matched the Oct. 30 file.¹ When WeedPress checked DEA’s address for the file again on Nov. 2, between 10:27 and 11:01 a.m. CST, it returned a “page not found” error; WeedPress saved a copy of the Nov. 2 file when it downloaded it that morning.²

• Nationally: entries fell from 6,983 to 6,083, a drop of 900. No control numbers were added.³
• Dispensaries: 899 of the 900 entries no longer in the Nov. 2 file were dispensaries, all in the seven states named in the Justice Department’s Oct. 30 release announcing dispensary registrations: Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.³,⁷ That overlap does not show that any entry no longer on the list corresponds to a registration. The other was a Colorado manufacturer entry.³
• South Dakota: 42 dispensary entries in the Oct. 30 file do not appear in the Nov. 2 file. South Dakota’s entries in the Nov. 2 file show one dispensary, two distributor and 10 manufacturer entries, for 13 in all, down from 55 in the Oct. 30 file. The distributor and manufacturer entries did not change.³

State	Dispensary entries, Oct. 30 file	Dispensary entries, Nov. 2 file	Change
Alabama	1	0	-1
Florida	748	44	-704
Mississippi	97	20	-77
South Dakota	43	1	-42
Texas	4	1	-3
Virginia	24	0	-24
West Virginia	48	0	-48
Seven states	965	66	-899

Source: WeedPress tabulation of DEA’s files.³

What the drop can and can’t show

The Justice Department said Oct. 30 that DEA had issued registrations to “more than 900 dispensaries across Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.” It named no businesses and gave no count by state.⁷ That statement alone does not show whether any particular South Dakota dispensary received a registration. Neither the release nor DEA’s page or files say whether any of the entries no longer on the timely-applicant list correspond to those registrations.⁷,⁴,¹,²

An entry’s absence from the timely-applicant list is not proof that an applicant was registered, withdrew or was denied, or that it is no longer considered a timely applicant for some other reason. DEA’s own description says the list “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.”⁴ In general, DEA’s Oct. 30 guidance says timely-applicant status does not cover applicants whose application “is no longer pending before DEA because the applicant has withdrawn the application or because the Administrator has issued a Final Order denying the application,” or applicants who lack the required state license.⁸ The guidance does not say that any of those circumstances applies to any South Dakota entry.

WeedPress reviewed all DEA documents published in the Federal Register from Oct. 29 through Nov. 2, as of its Nov. 2 check. None was a denial, or a decision and order, involving a South Dakota applicant.⁹ That review covers only what DEA published there and does not rule out unpublished agency action or another explanation.

The one South Dakota dispensary entry in DEA’s Nov. 2 file cannot be matched to a business from the file because the file has no names.² Its presence does not show that any business has a problem, and the absence of the other 42 entries from the Nov. 2 file does not show that those applicants were registered, withdrew, were denied or left the list for another reason.

DOJ said manufacturer and distributor applications “require additional review, including facility inspections, production controls, and quota determinations.”⁷ South Dakota’s 10 manufacturer and two distributor entries appear in both DEA files WeedPress reviewed.³

Why the list matters before Nov. 29

DEA’s guidance says timely applicants may need time “to verify the status of their existing trading partners as Timely Applicants or registrants” and adjust their supply chains, and that they “are expected to complete these activities and establish compliant supply chains no later than November 29, 2026.”⁸ WeedPress’s Oct. 31 report explains what that date could mean for patients.⁵

WeedPress analysis: The Nov. 2 file shows far fewer South Dakota dispensary entries than the Oct. 30 file, but it still cannot tell a patient or a supplier which South Dakota dispensaries hold a federal registration. The timely-applicant file cannot answer that question.

Questions pending

WeedPress sent written questions to DEA and the South Dakota Department of Health on Oct. 31 and asked for responses by 5 p.m. CT Wednesday, Nov. 4. One question asked DEA whether registered businesses are removed from the timely-applicant list. Responses are pending, and WeedPress will update this story if it receives them.⁵

South Dakota operators: If you can share documentation of your DEA status, contact weedpressnewstips@gmail.com.