Kentucky issued a limited number of licenses to process and cultivate medical marijuana during a lottery held Monday.
Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear handed out just 26 licenses, a fraction of the 774 applications approved and included in the lottery.
“There is a new day coming in Kentucky on Jan. 1, or soon after it, as all of the dispensaries and other parts of the business get up and running where you're going to be able to get safe medical cannabis to help you with your conditions,” Beshear said.
Kentucky is joining nearly every other state as it legalizes medical cannabis on Jan. 1 next year. Thanks to legislation passed this year, the licensing process was moved to speed up the availability of cannabis products in the state for those with qualifying conditions.
The 26 companies who won applied to operate all across the state, with only two operating in Jefferson County and three in Fayette.
Kentucky’s Office of Medical Cannabis issued four licenses in Warren County — the most of any in the state. Another 15 counties received licenses with the largest cultivator operations licensed in Warren and next door Barren County.
More than 100 companies did not make it to the lottery stage because their applications were denied, but Office of Medical Cannabis Executive Director Sam Flynn said they gave every business a chance to correct their applications.
“This process was designed to help the licensees get to this stage of the process because the number of the eligible applicants in each category exceeds the number of licenses available,” Flynn said.
The number of businesses that will be granted licenses is extremely limited compared to the number of applicants. Beshear said he doesn’t want the number of businesses to outpace demand in the early stages of the program with few conditions qualifying people for medical cannabis. But he expects the program to grow with time.
Currently, the legislature has allowed a very limited number of conditions to qualify for a cannabis card, like epilepsy, cancer and PTSD. Beshear recommended expanding that list earlier this year, which the Republican-controlled legislature declined to do.
“We continue to talk to lawmakers about expanding the list of conditions,” Beshear said. “There are certainly some conditions that are not included, that absolutely should be included, that are included in other states.”
The odds for winning a license to dispense cannabis will be even tougher — 4,076 companies applied for only 48 licenses. Beshear said he would announce that date later this week.
The applications closed two months ago, but the Beshear administration has thus far refused to release a full list of the names or owners of the companies who applied; on Monday, Flynn said the list would soon be made available via open records request, saying they have decided to only release the list after the lottery is concluded for that group.
Even Monday’s winners are not necessarily assured their place. The state legislature gave counties and cities the opportunity to choose not to have cannabis businesses located there.
They also allowed them to put it on the ballot, and more than 100 cities and counties in Kentucky have opted for a ballot referendum in November. Several other counties have merely decided against housing any cannabis businesses within their borders via ordinance, but none of 26 businesses are located in one of them.
Three of the businesses selected Monday are located in counties that are putting cannabis businesses on the ballot: Bullitt, Grant and Muhlenberg counties.
Businesses that applied to locate in a county or city that has opted out will have a grace period to choose a new location, according to the office’s administrative regulations.
This story has been updated.
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
