The US Department of Justice has registered more than 900 medical cannabis retailers across seven states that currently only have active medical markets.
The states include Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia, and Virginia, which has legalized adult-use, but has yet to launch that market.
“The American people deserve access to the best medical treatments in the world,” said Attorney General Todd Blanche in an Oct. 30 announcement. “The regulated distribution of medical marijuana by the applicants that have been granted registration by the Drug Enforcement Administration will help ensure broader access to chronic pain treatment and the safety of the American people. The Department of Justice will continue prosecuting illegal marijuana trafficking and related criminal activity in accordance with federal law.”
Trulieve became the first multistate organization to announce it received Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) registrations for an undisclosed number of their facilities. Trulieve has operations in Florida and West Virginia.
“Today marks another historic milestone for patients, physicians, and Trulieve, made possible by the bold action taken by the Trump Administration on common sense cannabis reform,” said Trulieve Chief Executive Officer Kim Rivers. “Federal reclassification of state licensed medical marijuana opens the door for clinical research while creating a level playing field for responsible operators like Trulieve. We appreciate the DEA’s work to advance this historic change and its continued engagement with state-licensed medical cannabis operators as the new federal framework is implemented.”
Curaleaf also noted that the company had begun receiving registration approvals from the DEA during its Nov. 3 quarterly earnings call.
The company has already earned at least 80 registration approvals, according to CEO Boris Jordan, but he declined to get into the specifics of the types of facilities that have been approved and which state they are in.
“We are receiving across the board registrations in all of our various locations. They are coming in every single day, so that is why we have not press released it yet,” said Boris Jordan during the company’s Nov. 3 earnings call. We want to see as they come in, but we have received probably more than 80 of them now already. So they are substantially starting to flow in on a daily basis.”
Green Thumb Industries Chairman and CEO Ben Kovlar announced that his company had also receive some DEA registrations during the company’s Nov. 5 quarterly earnings call.
https://investors.gtigrows.com/news-releases/news-release-details/green-thumb-industries-reports-third-quarter-2026-results
Green Thumb Industries currently operates in 15, but only three of them, Florida, Pennsylvania and Virginia, have active medical markets with no adult-use.
The DOJ also released guidance for the newly-registered dispensaries that have 60 days to ensure they only rely on manufacturer and cultivators that are also registered with the DEA.
DEA is beginning with dispensaries that submitted applications within the initial 60-day period established by the order and meet applicable federal requirements. To qualify, applicants must operate under a state medical marijuana regulatory framework consistent with federal law and the United States’ international treaty obligations.
The DEA began accepting the first round of regulation applicants during a 60-day from April to June, 2026. Applicants from that period were regarded as “fast-track” applicants
In that time the DEA received more than 7,000 applications from medical operators, including 4,197 dispensaries, 2,086 manufacturers and 710 distributors, which encompasses cultivators.
The DEA signaled that it would deny registrations for operators in states where businesses can obtain dual-licenses for medical and non-medical markets. Along with the announcement about approved businesses, the DEA also released a show-cause order against a dispensary in Minnesota, essentially denying the operator’s application because it was licensed at the state level to dispense both medical and adult-use cannabis.
“Because the State of Minnesota allows licensees to participate in both the non-medical and medical marijuana markets…the state regime fails to provide ‘robust protections’ against diversion, as non-medical use of marijuana remains prohibited under federal law,” said the seven-page order to show case from the DEA that Marijuana Moment obtained.
Aside from Minnesota, this could present an obstacle for approvals in the 25 other states with active adult-use markets.
