26 Kentucky businesses have officially been selected to receive the state’s first medical cannabis cultivation and processor licenses.
Governor Andy Beshear spoke at the drawing about how the state government has worked to ensure that this process was as fair and transparent as possible.
“This administration did not wait. We moved forward and began receiving applications from prospective medical cannabis businesses in July. The interest was overwhelming. In total, the office of medical cannabis received 4,998 applications, across all the categories,” said Beshear.
Sam Flynn, Executive Director of the Office of Medical Cannabis, said the process ran smoothly because they adopted best practices from other states, and that their goal from day one was to make the application and selection process clear and transparent. When the applications were submitted, they were vetted by qualified individuals to check for any potential deficiencies in the provided information, and if it was found, the applications were returned to be corrected.
In total, 918 applications were accepted across all cultivator and processor categories. 774 of those were accepted and approved for the lottery system.
“I will note that only 170 applications were initially correct and did not need to be cured, meaning 604 applicants received their deficiency notifications and were able to correct the deficiencies identified, which shows that this process was designed to help the licensees get to this stage of the process,” said Flynn.
A separate license lottery for dispensaries will be drawn on November 25. Applicants who won the most recent lottery have until November 12 to pay their license fee to the Office of Medical Cannabis. Once that fee has been paid, the office will issue a license.
Five companies in total were selected from eastern Kentucky, one processor and cultivator from Ashland, and one processor and two cultivators in Lexington. The first business to receive its license was Goeing Blue LLC, a cultivator in Fayette County.
