On 30 October, the DEA granted federal registrations for the first time to more than 900 state-licensed medical cannabis dispensaries in the United States. It is the first phase of the order signed in April by Attorney General Todd Blanche, which moved state-licensed medical cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the federal Controlled Substances Act. Nearly 7,000 further applications are in the queue.
What the DEA has actually approved
Registrations went to dispensaries in seven states: Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. This first batch covers businesses that applied for expedited consideration. According to the Department of Justice, as reported by Marijuana Moment, a state licence alone does not grant federal registration: there is a pre-registration investigation and, afterwards, security, recordkeeping and inventory obligations in line with any other controlled substance.
The DEA has also opened registration forms for manufacturers, distributors and testing labs. Their process is heavier, as it includes facility inspections, production controls and quota determinations.
The change that matters most: tax
While cannabis sat in Schedule I, businesses could not deduct ordinary expenses such as rent, advertising or sales staff from federal tax (the well-known Section 280E). With registration, qualifying medical operators expect to be able to do so, as Associated Press coverage explains. For a business on thin margins, that difference can decide whether it is profitable or not.
Rescheduling does not legalise adult use. Cannabis outside the scope of the order stays in Schedule I, and the Department of Justice has made clear it will keep prosecuting illegal trafficking.
The open questions
Many states have merged their medical and recreational markets, and it is still unclear how the DEA will treat businesses that handle both. Nor is it known what extra requirements it will impose on an industry regulated very differently from other Schedule III products. The first seven states registered run medical-only programmes, which leaves many of the large markets waiting.
Why it matters to European companies
Europe has spent years building its medical market on a pharmaceutical model: EU-GMP, full traceability and inventory controls. What the DEA now requires looks far more like that framework than US state regulation over the past decade. For anyone competing or investing on both sides of the Atlantic, these points deserve close attention:
- Manufacturers and labs: pharmaceutical compliance experience gains value if the US market moves towards that standard.
- Investors: tax savings for registered medical operators could strengthen their balance sheets and their capacity to grow outside the US.
- Technology and service providers: security, traceability software and regulatory consulting are now federal requirements, not options.
- Mixed operators: until the DEA clarifies its stance on dual licences, the uncertainty remains.
Spannabis B2B Bilbao 2027
Regulatory convergence between markets will be one of the underlying themes of the International Cannabis Business Forum, on 11 March 2027 at the BEC VIP Hall in Bilbao. If you are looking for partners in Europe or North America, get your ticket or book a B2B table to meet the people who make the decisions.