WeedPress: The Paper Trail

WeedPress counted every line of DEA’s medical marijuana timely-applicant list dated Nov. 2, 2026: 6,083 entries in 42 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico. Here are the totals by registration type, every state, and South Dakota’s 13 entries, with the change since DEA’s Oct. 30 file.

By Jason Karimi, Publisher

Part of WeedPress’s South Dakota DEA Supply Chain series. Start here →

The Drug Enforcement Administration publishes its medical marijuana timely-applicant list as a plain text file. Each line has three fields: state, business activity and a document control number. The file has no totals, no business names and no cities. WeedPress counted every line of the file dated Nov. 2, 2026, which WeedPress downloaded at 9 a.m. CST that day.¹ It has 6,083 entries in 42 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

An entry is an application, not a company. DEA requires a separate registration for each principal place of business, and one business may apply for more than one activity, so one company can appear on the list more than once.²,³ The list covers applicants whose applications DEA still treats as pending. DEA says it “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

Totals by registration type

Registration type (as listed by DEA)	Entries, Nov. 2 file	Share of entries	Entries, Oct. 30 file	Change
Dispensary	3,298	54.2%	4,197	-899
Manufacturer	2,075	34.1%	2,076	-1
Distributor	710	11.7%	710	0
All entries	6,083	100%	6,983	-900

Between the file dated Oct. 30 and the file dated Nov. 2, 900 control numbers left the list and none were added. No entry changed state or activity. Of the 900, 899 were dispensary entries in the seven states the Justice Department named on Oct. 30. The other was one Colorado manufacturer entry.¹,⁵,⁶

What stands out

• Oklahoma is 40.1% of the list. It has 2,442 of the 6,083 entries, more than the next 10 jurisdictions combined (2,382). It has more manufacturer entries (1,158) than dispensary entries (939). Nationally, dispensary entries outnumber manufacturer entries, 3,298 to 2,075.
• Three states hold 58.1%. Oklahoma, California and Maine have 3,533 entries between them. Fifteen jurisdictions have fewer than 20 entries each.
• The seven states DOJ named have 66 dispensary entries left. On Oct. 30 the Justice Department said DEA had begun registering “more than 900 dispensaries across Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.”⁷ Those seven states had 965 dispensary entries in the Oct. 30 file and 66 in the Nov. 2 file. They still have 106 manufacturer entries and 35 distributor entries. DOJ said manufacturer and distributor applications need additional review, including facility inspections.⁷ The drop fits DOJ’s announcement, but the files don’t say why any single entry left, so removal from the list is not, by itself, proof that an applicant was registered.

State	Dispensary entries, Oct. 30 file	Dispensary entries, Nov. 2 file	Manufacturer entries, Nov. 2 file	Distributor entries, Nov. 2 file
Alabama	1	0	2	0
Florida	748	44	45	19
Mississippi	97	20	28	5
South Dakota	43	1	10	2
Texas	4	1	3	2
Virginia	24	0	6	1
West Virginia	48	0	12	6
Seven states	965	66	106	35

Every state on the list

Sorted by total entries in the file dated Nov. 2, 2026. “Change” compares each state’s total with the file dated Oct. 30. WeedPress has saved the full table as a CSV file and will share it on request.

State	Dispensary	Manufacturer	Distributor	Total	Share	Change since Oct. 30
Oklahoma	939	1,158	345	2,442	40.1%	0
California	491	198	82	771	12.7%	0
Maine	148	127	45	320	5.3%	0
Pennsylvania	181	34	12	227	3.7%	0
Missouri	156	35	18	209	3.4%	0
Arizona	100	44	24	168	2.8%	0
Ohio	125	27	8	160	2.6%	0
Maryland	90	31	21	142	2.3%	0
Colorado	89	34	17	140	2.3%	-1
Puerto Rico	114	10	2	126	2.1%	0
Nevada	81	28	10	119	2.0%	0
Massachusetts	62	35	12	109	1.8%	0
Florida	44	45	19	108	1.8%	-704
Washington	74	22	12	108	1.8%	0
New Mexico	77	14	5	96	1.6%	0
Illinois	59	17	6	82	1.3%	0
New York	40	23	10	73	1.2%	0
Georgia	60	5	2	67	1.1%	0
New Jersey	40	16	4	60	1.0%	0
Michigan	25	25	6	56	0.9%	0
Kentucky	31	15	8	54	0.9%	0
Arkansas	38	11	4	53	0.9%	0
Mississippi	20	28	5	53	0.9%	-77
Connecticut	38	9	3	50	0.8%	0
Oregon	26	9	2	37	0.6%	0
Louisiana	27	4	3	34	0.6%	0
District of Columbia	24	5	1	30	0.5%	0
Minnesota	26	3	1	30	0.5%	0
Utah	14	9	5	28	0.5%	0
West Virginia	0	12	6	18	0.3%	-48
Hawaii	14	3	0	17	0.3%	0
New Hampshire	7	5	2	14	0.2%	0
South Dakota	1	10	2	13	0.2%	-42
Vermont	7	3	2	12	0.2%	0
North Dakota	8	2	1	11	0.2%	0
Montana	6	3	1	10	0.2%	0
Delaware	5	2	0	7	0.1%	0
Virginia	0	6	1	7	0.1%	-24
Texas	1	3	2	6	0.1%	-3
Rhode Island	4	1	0	5	0.1%	0
Iowa	2	1	1	4	0.1%	0
Nebraska	2	1	0	3	0.0%	0
Alabama	0	2	0	2	0.0%	-1
Kansas	2	0	0	2	0.0%	0
All jurisdictions	3,298	2,075	710	6,083	100%	-900

South Dakota

South Dakota entries	Oct. 30 file	Nov. 2 file	Change
Dispensary	43	1	-42
Manufacturer	10	10	0
Distributor	2	2	0
Total	55	13	-42

Business names: DEA’s list does not name any business, so there are no South Dakota business names to show here. The list gives only state, activity and a control number for each entry.¹ WeedPress is not publishing control numbers.

Forty-two of South Dakota’s 43 dispensary entries in the Oct. 30 file are gone from the Nov. 2 file. South Dakota’s 10 manufacturer entries and two distributor entries did not change.¹,⁵,⁶ The files don’t say why any entry left. The change doesn’t show that any South Dakota business was registered, withdrew or was denied, and the remaining entry doesn’t show which business it belongs to. WeedPress examined the gap between DEA’s Oct. 30 list and the state’s dispensary count in an Oct. 31 report.⁸

For comparison, the Department of Health’s establishments list, last updated Aug. 27, 2026, shows 62 dispensary listings, 30 cultivation licenses and 14 manufacturing licenses.⁹ The two lists measure different things. One company can hold several state licenses, and DEA has no separate “cultivator” category: its three medical marijuana registration types are manufacturer, distributor and dispenser.³

This matters before Nov. 29. DEA’s guidance says timely applicants must establish compliant supply chains by that date, and it lists verifying a timely applicant’s control number on DEA’s website as part of the minimum due diligence.¹⁰ Because the list has no names, a dispensary can check a number a supplier gives it, but it can’t use the list to find suppliers. Ruthie’s Dispensary in Wagner raised that problem with WeedPress on Nov. 2.¹¹ WeedPress has asked South Dakota-licensed cultivation and manufacturing establishments about their DEA status and will report what they say.¹²

Method

WeedPress counted every line of DEA’s file dated Nov. 2, 2026 (header “FILE DATE: 02-NOV-26”; 6,083 lines after the header; 6,083 distinct control numbers), grouped by the state code and business activity in each line.¹ WeedPress compared it with DEA’s file dated Oct. 30, 2026 (6,983 entries) by control number.⁵,⁶ Shares are rounded to one decimal place. “Jurisdictions” means the 42 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Counts are of entries, not companies or locations named by DEA.

DEA’s file address returned a “page not found” error each time WeedPress checked it on Nov. 2 from 10:27 a.m. through 1:16 p.m. CST, after WeedPress’s 9 a.m. download. These counts come from WeedPress’s preserved copy.¹³ WeedPress will update this page when DEA posts a new file.

Cross-checked against Easy Rx Cycle’s count (CC BY 4.0).¹⁴ Easy Rx Cycle’s table and CSV match WeedPress’s counts in every jurisdiction and every category. Easy Rx Cycle dates its source file Nov. 1, 2026; the copy WeedPress downloaded is headed Nov. 2.

Any business that wants to share its DEA registration or application status, or respond, can reach WeedPress at weedpressnewstips@gmail.com.