Kentucky officials held its second and final lottery Monday for medical marijuana dispensary licenses.
Last month, 36 companies were picked to operate in nine other Kentucky regions.
“We set up this process with the patient in mind, believing that they should be able to get their medical cannabis as quickly as they can,” said Gov. Andy Beshear.
On Monday, at the Kentucky Lottery headquarters in Louisville, officials chose who will be able to operate in the Bluegrass and Kentuckiana regions, which includes both Louisville and Lexington.
In the Kentuckiana region, there are Bullitt, Henry, Jefferson (Louisville), Oldham, Shelby, Spencer and Trimble counties.
>> FAQS on medical marijuana in KY
The lottery resulted in licenses for Franklin, Madison and Scott. There was a second picked for Madison, but that company will have to pick another location that won’t already have a dispensary.
The Bluegrass region includes Anderson, Bourbon, Boyle, Clark, Fayette (Lexington), Franklin, Garrard, Harrison, Jessamine, Madison, Mercer, Scott and Woodford counties.
The winners for that region were in Shelby County and three in Bullitt County. Again, with only one allowed per county, the second and third picks for Bullitt will have to move elsewhere in that region.
“We’ll be working, hand in glove with each of the new licensees to make sure that they’re following all the rules,” said Sam Flynn, executive director for Kentucky’s Office of Medical Cannabis.
There was a separate lottery just for Louisville and Lexington, as they will both get two licenses each.
Here’s the full list of companies:
We do not yet know exactly where they will be, only which companies get them.
Also, not all of the companies are from Kentucky.
“We set up this process with the patient in mind believing that they should be able to get their medical cannabis as quickly as they can. And while I get the criticisms because, you know, Kentucky companies that exist want to be a part of this, there’s a lot of excitement about it even though the market is going to be a lot smaller than people are thinking right now,” Beshear said Monday.
Between the two regions, there were more than 1,200 applications.
Medical marijuana officially becomes legal in Kentucky starting on Jan. 1.
However, since growers just received their permits last month, there are now questions about when medical cannabis products will be available.
If they are not ready by the start of the year, Beshear said his executive order that makes out-of-state product legal in Kentucky will still be in effect.
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