By Jasper Ward
WASHINGTON, April 27 (Reuters) – Companies seeking to register as medical marijuana dispensaries after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the rescheduling of cannabis can do so starting on Wednesday, according to a notice on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s website.
The DEA’s medical marijuana registration portal will go live Wednesday at 9 a.m. EST, less than a week after the U.S. Justice Department announced that it would immediately loosen restrictions on some marijuana products and move quickly to reclassify the drug as less dangerous.
Applicants will have to pay an annual $794 fee and answer a series of liability questions, including about whether they ever surrendered or had a state professional license or controlled substance registration revoked or suspended, according to the DEA’s instructions.
They will also have to describe security measures present at the locations under consideration to be a dispensary, the application instructions show.
Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug in the world and in the United States. Nearly one in five U.S. residents use it a year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Millions of Americans have been arrested for possession of the drug, even while growing businesses listed on stock exchanges sell cannabis-related products.
The rescheduling move does not legalize marijuana across the United States.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward in Washington; Editing by Caitlin Webber and Aurora Ellis)
