On October 30, the Drug Enforcement Administration published its first list of 6,983 timely applications from state-licensed medical cannabis businesses. Later that day, the Department of Justice announced that DEA had issued registrations to more than 900 dispensaries in seven states: Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.
DEA's list shows where those registrations went. Emerald Intel compared the daily applicant files from October 30 through November 4. Over that period, 906 dispensary applications left the list, every one of them in those seven states. One Colorado manufacturer also dropped off. As of November 4, 6,076 applications remain.
Florida accounts for 704 of the 906 dispensary registrations, or 78% of the total. That covers 94% of the 748 dispensary applications Florida businesses filed. Mississippi follows with 84, West Virginia with 48, South Dakota with 42, and Virginia with 24. Texas and Alabama account for four between them.
DEA registered 906 of the 965 dispensaries that applied in these states, or 94%. West Virginia and Virginia cleared every dispensary application, and South Dakota cleared 42 of 43.
Measured against the market, the picture changes. Emerald Intel tracks 1,172 medical dispensaries in the seven states, and 77% now hold a DEA registration. Florida is at 90% of its 784 dispensaries. Mississippi is at 44%: DEA approved most of the state's applicants, but only about half of Mississippi's 189 dispensaries applied in the first place.
All seven states sell cannabis for medical use only. So far, DEA has not registered a single dispensary in a state with adult-use sales.
DEA's file does not name applicants. It lists only a state, an activity, and an application number. Publicly traded operators have started filling in that gap.
Vireo Growth announced registrations for all 41 of its Florida dispensaries, and Planet 13 announced registrations for all 34 of its Florida locations. Trulieve and Jushi announced registrations without specifying a number, and Curaleaf reported its first registrations in its third-quarter earnings release.
Emerald Intel's license data fills in the rest. Vireo's 41 Florida stores operate under Green Dragon Florida, and Planet 13's 34 operate under VidaCann. Jushi's six Virginia dispensaries are licensed to Dalitso, LLC, a name that does not include the parent company. Trulieve holds 171 dispensary licenses in Florida and 10 more in West Virginia across four operating entities. DEA's list counts registrations. Emerald Intel names them.
The first round covered dispensaries in medical-only states. DOJ said DEA is still reviewing manufacturer and distributor applications, and those 2,785 filings have barely moved. Two larger tests remain. Oklahoma, a medical-only market with 939 dispensary applications, has not yet seen a single registration. For adult-use states, including California and Maine, DEA has already signaled the obstacle. In an order to In-Dispensary, a Minneapolis dispensary, the agency said Minnesota's dual-purpose license, which permits both medical and adult-use sales, falls outside its definition of a state medical license. For operators in adult-use states, that may be the most consequential decision of the rollout so far.
Emerald Intel will continue tracking DEA's daily file against state license data as the next registrations are issued.
Data note: DEA Medical Marijuana Timely Applicants files, October 30 through November 4, 2026; U.S. Department of Justice, October 30, 2026; company press releases and filings; Emerald Intel active medical-designated license data.