On April 22, 2026, a final DEA order moved FDA-approved drug products containing marijuana and marijuana sold under a qualifying state-issued medical license from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act. That order settled one narrow question. It did not settle the larger one.

The larger question — whether marijuana as a whole, including adult-use product not covered by an FDA approval or a state medical license, should move to Schedule III — goes to an expedited administrative hearing that begins June 29, 2026 at 9 a.m. ET at the DEA Hearing Facility in Arlington, Virginia. Under the Federal Register notice, the hearing will conclude no later than July 15, with a recess over the Independence Day holiday.

Anyone who wants to participate had to file a written notice of intent on or before May 28, 2026. NORML has already filed its Notice of Intention to Participate, arguing that consumers must be represented alongside industry and government. The window to formally join is effectively closed; the window to prepare for the outcome is not.

This article is not about the legal arguments. It is about what cannabis operators should be doing right now, while the hearing plays out, so that the eventual classification — whatever it is — does not catch their compliance and data infrastructure flat-footed.

Why this hearing matters operationally, not just legally

The April order created a two-tier reality. State-licensed medical product sits in Schedule III. Adult-use product, and anything outside the FDA/state-medical lane, remains in Schedule I. For multi-state and multi-license operators, that bifurcation is a compliance nightmare: two federal classifications applied to functionally identical plants moving through the same facilities, the same point-of-sale systems, and the same seed-to-sale tracking.

The June 29 hearing exists to resolve that split — potentially by pulling all of marijuana up to Schedule III. If it does, the operational consequences are immediate and largely unglamorous:

  • Recordkeeping under DEA registration. Schedule III substances carry federal recordkeeping, inventory, and security obligations that most state-licensed operators have never had to satisfy. The 60-day registration window that opened on April 29 already pulled nearly 400 businesses into the federal registrant population. A broader rescheduling expands that pool dramatically.
  • Tax posture. The removal of 280E exposure is the headline financial benefit, but it depends entirely on documentation that survives audit. Operators that cannot cleanly separate Schedule III activity from any remaining Schedule I activity will struggle to claim the benefit defensibly.
  • Data residency and reporting overlap. State seed-to-sale systems were never designed to map to federal Schedule III controls. Operators will be reporting the same transactions into two regimes that define the product differently.

None of this is theoretical. It lands on whoever owns compliance and IT at each operator, and it lands fast once an order issues.

The five things to do before the hearing concludes

1. Inventory which of your activities sit in which schedule today

Most operators cannot, on demand, produce a clean map of which SKUs, license types, and facilities fall under the April Schedule III order versus what remains Schedule I. Build that map now. It is the foundation for every downstream decision — tax, registration, security controls — and it is far easier to assemble before an expanded order forces the question.

2. Treat your DEA registration application as a security document

The registration process asks for facility security details. The DEA has already flagged a “red-flag question” issue in early applications where operators disclosed information that triggered follow-up scrutiny. Anything you submit becomes part of a federal record. Review applications with the same care you would give a regulatory filing, and make sure the physical and digital security controls you describe actually exist and are documented.

3. Lock down the data that ties to scheduling decisions

If your classification, tax position, and registration all hinge on transaction records, those records are now high-value targets and high-stakes evidence at the same time. Confirm that your point-of-sale data, seed-to-sale exports, and inventory reconciliations are backed up, access-controlled, and tamper-evident. A rescheduling that saves you on 280E means nothing if you cannot prove the underlying numbers.

4. Map your reporting obligations across both regimes

Assume, for planning purposes, that you will be reporting into state seed-to-sale systems and satisfying federal registrant recordkeeping. Identify where the two diverge — product definitions, units of measure, reconciliation cadences — and decide now who owns the reconciliation between them. This is exactly the kind of seam where data drifts out of sync and creates audit exposure.

5. Brief your leadership on the timeline, not just the outcome

The hearing concludes by mid-July. An order could follow within weeks or stretch for months through the administrative process. Leadership should understand that the relevant deadline is not “when marijuana is rescheduled” but the much shorter fuse on registration and recordkeeping that follows any order. Build the internal runbook before you need it.

What a broader Schedule III order does not change

It is worth being clear about the limits. Rescheduling to Schedule III does not federally legalize cannabis, does not eliminate state licensing, and does not by itself open interstate commerce. State regulators have already responded to the April order by stressing that their own laws have not changed and that they are awaiting further federal guidance. Operators who treat a rescheduling as a green light to relax state compliance will find themselves exposed on both ends.

It also does not change your obligations to the people whose data you hold. Patient records, loyalty data, and employee information remain subject to state privacy law regardless of how the plant is scheduled federally. If anything, a higher federal profile invites more scrutiny of how operators handle that data.

The takeaway

The June 29 hearing is the most consequential federal cannabis proceeding in years, and most of the attention will go to the legal theater in Arlington. The operators who come out ahead will be the ones who used the intervening weeks to get their classification map, their registration documentation, their data controls, and their dual-regime reporting in order — so that when an order finally issues, compliance is a configuration change, not a fire drill.

For more on what the first wave of registrants learned, see our analysis of Verano’s DEA registration play and the DEA Schedule III order going live.

This article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.