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What you need to know about Kentucky’s medical marijuana program

A majority of Kentucky counties and cities allow licensed medical marijuana businesses to operate there (green), while a minority passed local laws to prohibit them (red).
Map by Justin Hicks, KPR
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Justin Hicks, KPR
A majority of Kentucky counties and cities allow licensed medical marijuana businesses to operate there (green), while a minority passed local laws to prohibit them (red).

Medical cannabis is technically legal for eligible patients in Kentucky on Jan. 1, but it will likely be many months until homegrown marijuana makes its way into stores for purchase.

Kentucky’s medical cannabis program was created through legislation passed in 2023 after many years of efforts, and is now very close to being fully implemented.

While medical marijuana will not be legal to purchase in stores until Jan. 1, the state moved up the timeline on business licensing to this past summer, with most cultivator, processor, dispensary and testing lab licenses awarded in the final two months of 2024.

Though medical marijuana will technically be legal to purchase at the beginning of 2025, most observers in the industry believe it will still take many months for it to show up in stores.

Here’s a look at many of the questions around Kentucky’s medical marijuana program and how it is expected to operate going forward.

When is medical marijuana legal in Kentucky, and when will it be available for purchase?

Eligible Kentucky patients with a valid prescription are able to purchase medical marijuana from a licensed dispensary beginning Jan. 1.

However, such patients will be unlikely to find marijuana available for purchase at dispensaries that day, and likely for several months to follow – at least.

Under Kentucky’s medical cannabis laws and regulations, cultivators in the state cannot grow their marijuana in secure, indoor facilities until they are licensed. Most cultivators did not receive their license until early November — shortly after the state’s lottery to award 16 applicants — and many of these winners do not yet have a facility set up to grow the plants.

Additionally, once cultivators do have a facility in place, it still takes at least four months to grow marijuana from seeds and seedlings into a flowering plant that is ready to be harvested and sent to processors and dispensaries.

Many dispensary and processor licensees who won the lotteries in October, November and December are also trying to finalize lease agreements for where they will operate, let alone finishing building out their facilities and passing local and state inspections.

Some in the marijuana industry expect it to take until at least the summer for medical marijuana products to begin showing up in stores, while some who are more pessimistic believe it could be as late as 2026 until most dispensaries are stocked.

Asked in December if he had a timeline for when medical cannabis would be available for purchase in stores, Gov. Andy Beshear said he hoped products would be on the shelf in the first quarter of 2025.

Beshear also noted that his 2022 executive order is still in place, which gives legal protections for certain qualified patients to purchase marijuana legally in other states and bring it back to Kentucky for use. The order serves as a preemptive pardon for any of these qualified individuals who face a marijuana charge within Kentucky. Republican legislators criticized the order and questioned its validity, though they did not vote to repeal it.

Who is eligible to receive medical marijuana in Kentucky and how can they be approved?

In order for a Kentucky patient to be eligible to receive a medical marijuana prescription from a health care provider, they must be diagnosed with any of the following medical conditions:

  • Any form of cancer
  • Chronic or severe pain
  • Epilepsy or other intractable seizure disorders 
  • Multiple sclerosis, muscle spasms, or spasticity
  • Chronic nausea or cyclical vomiting syndrome
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder

Doctors could start prescribing medical marijuana to qualified patients on Dec. 1. This is the same day that the state launched its online “Authorized Practitioner Directory,” where patients can find practitioners authorized to issue written certifications recommending the use of medical cannabis to patients. These certifications are valid for 60 days.

Patients and qualified caregivers who have already received their written certification from a practitioner can register to receive their medical cannabis ID card starting Jan. 1, when the state’s online Patient and Caregiver Registry Portal launches.

Is medical marijuana now allowed in certain parts of Kentucky?

While certain local governments have passed ordinances to prohibit medical marijuana businesses from operating in their jurisdiction, eligible patients are allowed to possess and use properly obtained marijuana, no matter where they live.

While there are no geographic restrictions to eligible patients possessing and using medical marijuana, they are prohibited from vaping on public transportation or any public place.

Though marijuana flower can be sold at dispensaries, Kentucky’s law also strictly prohibits smoking it through combustion anywhere, as it can only be ingested by vaping or eating.

A minority of local governments in Kentucky have passed laws prohibiting medical marijuana businesses from operating there, such as license cultivators, processors or dispensaries.

Twenty-one counties have banned these businesses, though cities in all but four of them have taken steps to allow them. Additionally, 44 cities have passed ordinances to ban the businesses.

Most counties opted in to allow these businesses, while all 106 counties and cities that put the question to voters in a ballot referendum opted not to ban medical cannabis businesses from operating there.

Who is licensed to operate as a medical marijuana company in Kentucky?

The state received nearly 5,000 applications this summer from businesses seeking to be licensed as a medical marijuana cultivator, processor or dispensary.

On Oct. 25, 16 cultivators and 10 processors were selected as license winners through the first state lottery.

Dispensaries are split up into 11 regions, with each getting four, while Jefferson and Fayette County each get two. The 36 winners in nine of the regions were selected in a Nov. 25 lottery, while the final 12 winners in the other two regions were selected in a Dec. 16 lottery.

Kentucky has also awarded four licenses for testing lab facilities, which were not selected through a lottery system.

Though each of the applicants included a physical address where they at least had a contingent lease agreement to operate, most of the winners appear likely to set up their facility or retail store at a different location.

Several different winners indicated that they would operate at the same physical address, necessitating at least one to change. Additionally, counties (other than Fayette and Jefferson) cannot have more than two dispensaries, so some of those who won a license will have to set up shop in another county in the same region.

Few of the winning applicants were owned by Kentucky residents, while most had strong ties to large out-of-state marijuana companies. Some applicants within the state — especially Kentucky hemp farmers, who won none of the cultivator licenses — complained that out-of-state companies were able to game the lottery process with many expensive applications.

Beshear defended the lottery process he set up, arguing that any competitively scored system where in-state applicants had a better chance of winning would lead to lawsuits that delayed the program.

State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Joe is the enterprise statehouse reporter for Kentucky Public Radio, a collaboration including Louisville Public Media, WEKU-Lexington, WKU Public Radio and WKMS-Murray. Email Joe at jsonka@lpm.org.

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