TLDR: The 26 follow-up questions DEA’s Rocky Mountain Division sent Colorado dispensaries that applied for registration, question by question, with what to think about before answering. Consistency with your filings is the whole test. Plus the launch of the Operator Retainer.
Welcome back to the Federal Cannabis File.
Marijuana Moment obtained and published the 26-question list DEA’s Rocky Mountain Division is sending Colorado dispensaries that applied for registration under the new federal medical marijuana pathway. The whole list is below, with what I would be thinking about before answering. And at the end, something new I am testing for smaller operators. Stick around for that.
First, the process this confirms: apply, get a facility visit, then answer written follow-up questions while DEA decides your application. The list varies by region (Mississippi operators got overlapping but different questions), so treat this as a floor, not a ceiling.
The 26 questions
Company background
- Names and titles of owners, directors or equivalent leadership, and persons in charge on-site
- When was your business established/incorporated?
- How long at your current location? Any previous locations?
- Any subsidiaries, parent companies, or related companies/DBAs?
- What is your management structure?
- Hours of operation (building, dispensing, office, holidays)
- Specific controlled substances you will dispense (marijuana, marijuana extract, naturally derived delta-9-THC)
- Specific product types offered (gummies, extracts, concentrates, tinctures, topicals, oils, flower, cartridges, pre-rolls, etc.)
- All employees with physical access to medical marijuana: names, DOBs, titles, full-time or part-time
- Prior experience handling controlled substances? If yes, explain
- The analytical lab(s) testing your products
- Any other DEA registrations or applications held by you or individuals associated with the business?
- Any Power of Attorney for the DEA application? Provide a copy
- Will you be growing marijuana?
Suppliers
15. Your medical marijuana suppliers: names, addresses, DEA registration numbers
16. Your supplier’s shipment and delivery method (common or contract carriers, 3PL, own carriers)
17. Will you be ordering marijuana or marijuana products from other states?
18. Will you be ordering synthetic cannabinoids?
19. Will you be ordering seeds or plants to grow at the dispensary?
Ordering, receiving, and dispensing
20. A copy of your SOPs for inventory management, storage, and patient sales (citing Colorado rule 1 CCR 212-3-5-115(B.5))
21. Your patient verification procedure (medical card, ID)
22. A copy of your labeling, packaging, and sealing policies (citing 21 CFR § 1301.13(k)(8) and the required warning that transferring the drug to anyone other than the patient is a crime)
Records and reporting
23. How often do you conduct a physical inventory count?
24. Your policy for returns to the supplier (wrong product, wrong strength)
25. Your policy for thefts and losses of medical marijuana
26. How is defective, expired, or deadstock product disposed of?
What I would be thinking about
Consistency is the whole test. The ownership, management, and location answers need to match exactly what you filed, federally and with your state. An unexplained mismatch is what turns a routine follow-up into a longer conversation.
Question 10 deserves careful wording. For nearly every operator, the honest answer involves years of handling marijuana under a state license while it sat in Schedule I. DEA knows this; its own application asks a version of the same question. Truthful and precise, with counsel involved in the drafting.
Question 15 may produce awkward answers. DEA has not yet posted the marijuana-specific forms for manufacturers, distributors, and labs, so some suppliers have pending applications and no issued number. Say which it is. Do not guess or invent a number.
Question 17, ordering from other states, deserves serious attention. The federal authority is subject to the limitations of the underlying state license, and states have yet to authorize interstate commerce.
A federal agency just asked for your state SOP by state regulation number. That is the deference structure of rescheduling: your state compliance program is now your federal compliance showing. If your SOPs were written to get through an application and do not describe what your staff actually does, that is a problem.
The transfer warning is checkable today. Pull a dispensed product off your shelf. The warning is either on the label or it is not. Cheapest federal fix on this list.
And the big one: your answers are statements to a federal agency about a controlled substances operation. Assume DEA compares them against your application, your state file, and what investigators saw on site. Draft them like filings, because that is what they are.
Quick question before the new thing: which of the 26 could you NOT answer confidently today? Email me and tell me the number. I read every reply.
Something new: 10 founding memberships
Here is what I keep running into: smaller operators who need a lawyer more than they can afford one. Compliance questions pile up, contracts get signed unread, and the first call to counsel happens after a notice arrives.
So I built the Operator Retainer: in-house counsel for operators who cannot afford in-house counsel. $1,500 a month, flat. Here is everything a founding membership includes:
- A Compliance Baseline in your first 30 days: I run your operation through my triage and hand you a written top-5 gap list, so you know exactly where you stand before our first call
- One strategy call every month (one hour, any topic: state compliance, the federal pathway, licensing, operations)
- One contract or document review every month (up to 20 pages, with written risk flags and recommended redlines)
- Your compliance questions answered by email
- Enforcement priority: the front of the line and a same-day triage call the day a DCC or DEA document shows up, with member rates on the response
- The Operator Vault: my inspection visit protocol, the 8-stop checklist, the deadline table, and the rest of my tools, customized to your operation and kept current as the rules change
- Member rates on everything beyond scope
Month to month. Cancel anytime. No long-term contract. And here is the part that should make this easy: if your first month is not worth it to you, tell me and I will refund it.
Why 10? Because that is a real cap. I do this work personally, and in cannabis supply chains every new client is a conflicts check. Founding members keep $1,500 a month for as long as they stay. After the ten seats fill, the price goes up for everyone after.
The terms above are as written on the send date; the current terms and the number of founding seats still open are on the Operator Retainer page. If you want one of the ten, email ryan@kocotlaw.com with the word RETAINER, or call or text me at (916) 572-6445.
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Attorney advertising. This issue is general information, not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Please do not send confidential details until we have spoken and confirmed there is no conflict.