Nearly eight months after the state program’s launch, medical marijuana sales still haven’t begun in Kentucky, leaving thousands of registered card holders wondering when they’ll get access to treatment.
As of July 8, more than 16,000 Kentuckians have received written certifications from their health care providers to use medical cannabis — a requirement to prove patients have one of the six qualifying conditions under state law.
A smaller number, 11,504 Kentuckians, have successfully applied for and received medical cannabis cards since the program’s launch Jan. 1, according to figures from the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services.
Gov. Andy Beshear has acknowledged frustrations with the pace of the program’s launch, but blamed the delay on the requirements of Senate Bill 47, which legalized medical cannabis in Kentucky.
“We recognize that it’s taking longer than we would have liked, but the law kind of set that up with how it had to be implemented,” Beshear said during a June 26 news conference.
Kentucky’s law legalizing marijuana to treat a limited number of medical conditions requires cannabis sold here to be grown, tested and processed within state borders. The commonwealth granted medical cannabis business licenses through a series of lotteries in the fall before officially accepting card holder applications beginning in January.
Asked at the June news conference whether Kentuckians would need to wait until 2026 for medical marijuana sales to begin, Beshear said “I hope not.”
In the meantime, Kentuckians who can now legally use medical cannabis to treat their conditions are left with few options for access.
Karen Young, a nurse practitioner with medical marijuana evaluation clinic Green Health Docs, said some of her patients have driven to Ohio and Michigan to legally purchase marijuana in those jurisdictions.
“For the most part, everyone is very frustrated that there’s nothing open,” Young said.
One common thread in many of the patients Young sees is they’re often working adults with chronic pain issues, who for one reason or another, aren’t seeing results with conventionally prescribed medications.
“So many people just want to get off their [prescription] drugs,” Young said. “They’re put on medicines that they don’t particularly tolerate. They have side effects. They just want something more natural.”
To try and smooth over the delay in access, Beshear’s administration has waived renewal fees for card holders next year. The annual renewal fee is $25.
For those who have the time and ability to travel, the governor has said a 2022 executive order allowing patients to purchase small amounts of marijuana from out of state with a health care provider’s certification will remain in effect.
When will medical marijuana sales begin in Central Kentucky?
Businesses say they’re moving as quickly as possible to stand up the infrastructure to make medical marijuana sales happen in Kentucky.
The law requires Kentucky grown, tested, processed and retailed cannabis, meaning the commonwealth has to construct a supply chain from scratch. Growing operations must also be indoors at secure facilities.
State inspections of cultivators are underway, but marijuana plants can take months to mature.
On July 15, Beshear’s administration announced the opening of a Mayfield cultivator. Based on the maturity of its plants, the first harvest at the 10,000-square-foot growing operation is expected in about two months, a state official told the Herald-Leader.
Several Central Kentucky dispensaries, where products can be purchased, are preparing to open their doors to customers sometime as soon as the fall or early winter of this year. Those include a Lexington dispensary planning to open a drive-thru store in a former Frisch’s Big Boy restaurant in Hamburg.
Bradley Clark, a Lexington attorney who heads Kentucky Cannabis Law Group, represents business license holders throughout the commonwealth, including some in Central Kentucky. There are several hurdles licensees have had to clear to stand up businesses, Clark said. There’s funding to raise, permitting to get approved and equipment to buy.
But medical marijuana businesses also must comply with state rules and undergo inspections before they can begin operating.
“It’s a lot more complicated than it looks from the outside,” Clark said. “We’re not talking about running a lemonade stand. It’s more like running a pharmacy, and we don’t just give those to people for the heck of it either.”
State inspections for cultivators are “currently being conducted, and approvals will soon follow,” a spokesperson for the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services told the Herald-Leader July 8.
The spokesperson did not specify where the inspections are taking place. Kentucky’s two largest cultivators, each with up to 25,000 square feet of growing space, are currently licensed in Madison and Clark counties, having relocated from South Central Kentucky.
If grown from seed, it takes between three to eight months before a marijuana plant is ready for harvest.
Questions of fairness also have surrounded the lottery process for awarding business licenses. While Beshear has consistently defended the lotteries, which were conducted in partnership with Kentucky Lottery, the approach has its critics.
They include Kentucky Auditor Allison Ball, who in April announced an investigation into the state’s Office of Medical Cannabis and “its execution of the Kentucky Medical Cannabis Program.”
The audit follows a series of reviews by Louisville Public Media, which found out-of-state companies with deep pockets dominated the lotteries for business licenses.
“My office has continued to receive complaints about how the Office of Medical Cannabis administered the lottery process for awarding medical cannabis business licenses,” Ball said in a news release announcing the investigation.
“Kentuckians should have confidence that state offices operate with transparency and integrity, and my office is committed to ensuring those standards.”
For now, patients’ best remaining option means driving to another state to buy small amounts medical marijuana, putting it largely out of reach for many of the chronically ill Kentuckians the program is meant to serve.
