Key Takeaways
- DEA proposes to maintain 2027 marijuana quotas at 6,675 kg for Schedule I and 1,000 kg for marijuana extract, focusing on research, not medical use.
- Schedule III marijuana products remain separate, lacking production numbers as DEA evaluates data to determine legitimate needs.
- Raised ibogaine and MDMA quotas reflect increased research for PTSD and depression treatments, but these substances remain Schedule I without FDA approval.
- The public can comment on DEA’s notice for 30 days, while the release of Schedule III quotas is still pending.
- Stakeholders should treat Schedule I figures as research numbers only, not medical market estimates.
DEA filed its draft notice on November 9, with formal publication yesterday in the Federal Register. The document covers production limits for dozens of controlled substances, but two threads stand out for anyone watching cannabis and psychedelic policy: marijuana’s split personality under federal law, and a notable bump in research-grade psychedelics.
What Is DEA Proposing for Marijuana Production in 2027?
For Schedule I marijuana, which covers cannabis research outside the new medical framework, DEA proposes keeping quotas exactly where they sat in 2026.
Substance Proposed 2027 Quota Marijuana 6,675 kilograms Marijuana extract 1,000 kilograms
Those figures, drawn from the Federal Register notice, represent material grown for federally sanctioned scientific and research purposes. They say nothing about how much cannabis moves through the state-licensed medical programs that were shifted to Schedule III back in April.
That matters more than it sounds. The DEA is treating the two pools of marijuana as entirely separate regulatory tracks, each with its own production math. One schedule doesn’t tell you anything useful about the other.
Why Is DEA Still Treating Schedule III Marijuana Separately?
Back in April 2026, the Acting Attorney General finalized a rule moving FDA-approved marijuana products and state-licensed medical marijuana into Schedule III. That rule created three brand-new drug codes: 7362 for marijuana, 7353 for marijuana extract, and 7386 for naturally derived delta-9 THC.
DEA’s new notice confirms those codes still don’t have production numbers attached. The agency says it’s “assessing data sources and methodologies to determine the most reliable and relevant datasets” for estimating legitimate national need for these three categories. A standalone notice will follow once that work is finished, and there’s no public timeline for when that happens.
This is the point we’ve raised before on our site: regulating the same cannabis plant differently depending on who’s selling it and under what authorization creates real operational headaches. DEA isn’t just handing out different registration paperwork here. It’s building two separate production control systems for marijuana, and that has consequences for anyone trying to plan around it.
What Does the Schedule III Delay Mean for Medical Manufacturers?
If you’re a manufacturer or distributor registered to handle Schedule III marijuana products, the honest answer right now is: wait and see. DEA has started issuing federal registrations, including protections for more than 900 medical marijuana dispensaries across seven states. But registration is not the same as a production ceiling.
Without a published Schedule III quota, cultivation planning, manufacturing capacity, and inventory decisions for the federally recognized medical market remain guesswork. The 6,675-kilogram Schedule I marijuana figure cannot be used as a stand-in. Schedule I quotas exist to support research programs, not to estimate the output of a nationwide medical cannabis supply chain that DEA itself hasn’t sized yet.
There’s also a separate administrative hearing still underway on whether to move the remaining Schedule I marijuana into Schedule III, with Chief Administrative Law Judge Derek Julius expected to issue a recommendation before any final call is made. Choose patience if you’re relying on federal numbers to size your business. Choose caution if you’re relying on Schedule I figures to estimate Schedule III demand, because those two pools simply don’t overlap.
Why Is DEA Increasing Ibogaine and MDMA Production Quotas?
The same notice proposes a steep jump for two psychedelics tied to mental health research. Ibogaine climbs from 210 grams in 2026 to 12,002 grams proposed for 2027. MDMA rises from 12,000 grams to 33,296 grams.
DEA directly ties both increases to “manufacturing activities related to the increased level of research and clinical trials being conducted with these substances for potential treatment of conditions including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression.” The agency also links the move to two executive orders: one addressing addiction recovery, and one aimed at accelerating treatment access for serious mental illness, including a Right to Try pathway for ibogaine compounds, according to the Federal Register text. An earlier executive order on expanding patient access to psychedelics set the stage for this.
Does a Higher Quota Mean Ibogaine or MDMA Are Approved Medicines?
No, and this is worth stating plainly. A production quota tells registered manufacturers how much of a substance they’re allowed to produce for authorized research, not whether the FDA has approved it for treatment. Ibogaine and MDMA remain Schedule I controlled substances. Raising the ceiling on how much can be manufactured simply reflects DEA’s expectation that clinical trial activity will need more material in 2027, nothing more.
That said, the direction of travel is hard to miss. Pharmaceutical interest in psychedelics keeps building. Compass Pathways reported in February 2026 that its second Phase 3 trial of COMP360 psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression hit its primary endpoint, and the company has since submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) to the FDA for COMP360, its synthetic psilocybin formulation.
The review should move faster than usual, thanks to the drug’s Breakthrough Therapy designation and a rolling review process. Even so, approval wouldn’t change psilocybin’s Schedule I status on its own. It would need to be rescheduled before doctors could prescribe it, and pricing and delivery details are still unknown.
It’s also worth noting that COMP360 isn’t the same as natural psilocybin mushrooms, since it offers consistent dosing and has no tie to state-regulated psilocybin programs. These are different regulatory tracks (quota setting versus drug approval), but both point toward a research pipeline that federal agencies are actively planning around.
What’s Happening With Psilocybin and Psilocyn Quotas?
Psilocybin and psilocyn also received modest bumps in the proposed 2027 numbers. Psilocybin rises to 60,000 grams, and psilocyn to 93,600 grams. Unlike ibogaine and MDMA, the notice doesn’t spell out a specific narrative explanation for these increases the way it does for the two addiction-focused substances. The numbers are there in the proposed quota table, but DEA’s written rationale focuses primarily on ibogaine and MDMA.
That’s a small but useful distinction if you’re tracking which substances are getting active regulatory attention versus which are simply moving along with general trend adjustments.
What Should the Cannabis and Psychedelics Industries Watch Next?
Two things are worth bookmarking. First, the public comment period on this notice runs 30 days from formal publication, giving stakeholders a window to weigh in before DEA finalizes anything. Second, keep an eye out for the standalone Schedule III marijuana notice. That’s the document that will actually tell medical cannabis manufacturers what their federal production ceiling looks like, and right now, nobody outside DEA knows when it’s coming.
Until that notice lands, treat every Schedule I marijuana figure as exactly what it is: a research number, not a medical market estimate.
Frequently Asked Questions
DEA proposes 6,675 kilograms of Schedule I marijuana and 1,000 kilograms of marijuana extract for 2027, both unchanged from 2026 levels. These figures apply only to marijuana used for federally authorized research, not the Schedule III medical marijuana market.
DEA assigned drug codes 7362 for Schedule III marijuana, 7353 for Schedule III marijuana extract, and 7386 for naturally derived delta-9 THC, covering products approved by the FDA or licensed under state medical marijuana programs.
DEA has not set a timeline. The agency says it’s still evaluating data sources and methodologies to determine legitimate national production needs and will publish a separate Federal Register notice once those figures are ready.
DEA cites growing research and clinical trial activity involving PTSD and depression treatment, along with executive orders focused on addiction recovery and serious mental illness treatment access, as the reasons behind the proposed increases.
No. A production quota only sets a manufacturing ceiling for registered producers supporting authorized research. Both substances remain in Schedule I, and neither has received FDA approval as a medicine.
