Kentucky governor announces lottery to award initial round of medical cannabis business licenses
Gov. Andy Beshear says Kentucky will use a lottery to award licenses to businesses competing to participate in the state’s startup medical cannabis program
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Kentucky will use a lottery system to award an initial round of licenses to businesses competing to participate in the state's startup medical cannabis program, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Thursday.
The governor called it a fair way to give each applicant that clears the screening process an opportunity to land a license for the program, which launches statewide at the start of 2025.
The lottery, set for October, should remove any temptation to lobby in an effort to “get a leg up in different ways that we don’t want to see,” Beshear said at his weekly news conference.
“It reduces or eliminates litigation, and it creates a more fair process, not one where people bid against each other and only then the big companies can be a part of it,” the governor said. “But one that provides at least a chance for everyone who can meet the criteria.”
The state initially will issue 48 medical cannabis dispensary licenses, divided among 11 regions. The goal is to ensure the shortest possible drive times for Kentuckians with qualifying health conditions, said Sam Flynn, executive director of the medical cannabis program.
Each region will be allocated at least four dispensary licenses, and counties will be limited to one dispensary with the exception of those that are home to Louisville and Lexington, which can have two licenses, Flynn said.
Limited numbers of cultivator and processor licenses will be issued.
Caps on licenses are meant to avoid flooding the market with medicinal cannabis products and exceed demand, which would hurt businesses and patients, the
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