WeedPress: The Paper Trail

Everything WeedPress has published on DEA’s new supply-chain rules for South Dakota medical cannabis, in one place: what’s happening, what a dispensary should do first, the dates that matter, the stories in order, and the records behind them.

By Jason Karimi, Publisher

What’s happening

Under DEA’s medical marijuana rule, a state-licensed business that sent DEA a complete registration application, with the fee, between April 28 and June 26, 2026, is a “timely applicant” and may keep operating under its state license while DEA reviews the application.¹,² In an information sheet issued Oct. 30, 2026, DEA said timely applicants and DEA registrants may buy from and sell to each other, but not to businesses that are neither, and that timely applicants are expected to check their trading partners and “establish compliant supply chains no later than November 29, 2026.”² DEA’s timely-applicant list, the file DEA points buyers to, shows only a state, a business type and a control number for each entry, not business names, and DEA says the list may change as applicants are registered, withdraw or are no longer considered timely.³ This series explains, in plain English, what dispensary owners, producers and patients need to know before Nov. 29.

If you run a dispensary, start here

What Should My South Dakota Dispensary Do Before Nov. 29? A DEA Supplier Checklist. A step-by-step checklist, built from DEA’s own guidance sheet and website, for checking whether a supplier qualifies and keeping the records DEA asks for.

Producers and patients: the same checklist shows what paperwork dispensaries are likely to ask suppliers for, and the glossary explains the terms.

Key dates

• April 28 to June 26, 2026: the window for a complete DEA application, with fee, to count as a timely application.¹,²
• Oct. 30, 2026: the Justice Department announced DEA had begun registering more than 900 medical marijuana dispensaries in seven states, including South Dakota,⁴ and DEA issued its timely-applicant information sheet.²
• Nov. 2, 2026: DEA’s timely-applicant list dated Nov. 2 shows 13 South Dakota entries, down from 55 in the Oct. 30 file. A number leaving the list is not proof that the business was registered; DEA says entries can leave for several reasons.⁵,³
• Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026, 5 p.m. CT: the deadline WeedPress gave DEA and the South Dakota Department of Health to answer its Oct. 31 questions.⁸
• Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026: amendments to several South Dakota Department of Health medical cannabis rules take effect.⁶ WeedPress has asked South Dakota cultivators and manufacturers about their DEA status, with replies requested by 5 p.m. CT,⁷ and plans to publish a producer status table that day.
• Nov. 29, 2026: DEA’s date for timely applicants to have compliant supply chains in place.²

Read the series in order

• Ruthie’s Dispensary in Wagner Got Its DEA Registration, Then Asked WeedPress Who It Can Legally Buy From by Nov. 29 (Nov. 2): the question that started the series, and what the federal rule, DEA’s guidance and South Dakota law say.
• What Should My South Dakota Dispensary Do Before Nov. 29? A DEA Supplier Checklist (Nov. 2): the plain-English supplier checklist.
• DEA’s Timely-Applicant List by the Numbers (Nov. 2): WeedPress’s count of every entry on DEA’s Nov. 2 list, by state and type, with South Dakota’s 13 entries.
• Background: DEA’s List Shows 43 South Dakota Dispensary Entries; the State Licenses 62 (Oct. 31): what that gap can and can’t mean.
• Coming Monday, Nov. 2: what the drop in South Dakota dispensary entries on DEA’s timely-applicant list does and doesn’t show; and a related story on a Colorado drug developer’s application to grow marijuana for an FDA-regulated drug program, a separate federal track from South Dakota’s state program.
• All stories, newest first: the SD DEA Supply Chain archive.

Tools and records

• SD DEA Supply Chain Glossary: timely applicant, control number (DCN), trading partner, the existing-inventory exception and more, in plain English.
• The timely-applicant list by the numbers: counts by state and type, and what changed since Oct. 30.
• South Dakota Establishment Status List: South Dakota’s licensed medical cannabis establishments by type, as the Department of Health lists them, with a status for each.
• Federal Compliance Matrix: question by question, what federal and South Dakota law say about medical cannabis since the April 28, 2026 federal order, what agencies have said, and what remains open.
• Agency Accountability Tracker: WeedPress’s questions to DEA and state agencies, and whether they have been answered.
• Records Library: the primary documents behind WeedPress’s reporting, so readers can check the record themselves.

Open questions WeedPress has asked DEA

WeedPress sent questions to DEA’s Media Affairs office (and separate questions to the South Dakota Department of Health) on Oct. 31, 2026.⁸ On Nov. 2, WeedPress sent DEA follow-up questions on South Dakota supply chains and asked for a reply by 5 p.m. CT Thursday, Nov. 5.⁹ WeedPress asked for answers to the Oct. 31 questions by 5 p.m. CT Wednesday, Nov. 4. Neither DEA nor the department had answered as of Nov. 2, 2026; DEA’s Media Affairs office sent only automated acknowledgments. The Nov. 2 questions ask:

• Before Nov. 29: may a DEA-registered or timely-applicant South Dakota dispensary buy directly from an in-state cultivator or manufacturer that is on the timely-applicant list but not yet registered?
• After Nov. 29: may those purchases continue while the supplier’s application is still pending, or must dispensaries then buy only from registered suppliers?
• Existing inventory: is Oct. 30 the date that matters for DEA’s existing-inventory exception, does it cover a dispensary that has since been registered, and does it end?
• Verifying suppliers: which DEA web page should buyers use to check a control number, how should they verify while the list file is unavailable, and how can they tell why a number left the list?

WeedPress will add DEA’s answers here and in the series. Status is tracked on the Agency Accountability Tracker.

How we verify, and how to reach us

Read How WeedPress Verifies for how WeedPress checks DEA and state records, handles tips and gives people a right of reply. Have a document from DEA, a correction or a question for this series? Email weedpressnewstips@gmail.com. Corrections are noted on the Corrections & Right of Reply page.

Last updated: Nov. 2, 2026.