(LEX 18) — Businesses across the commonwealth who submitted an application to sell medical marijuana, found out if they were going to receive a license, in the first of two license lotteries for medical cannabis dispensaries.
Four licenses were given out per region, and only one license per county. Nine of the 11 regions were announced Monday.
"This is another major step for ensuring Kentuckians suffering from cancer, PTSD, and other serious conditions have access to safe, affordable, medical cannabis," says Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear.
Governor Beshear and the Office of Medical Cannabis joined executives from the Kentucky Lottery Corporation for Monday's drawing.
"To become eligible for this lottery, perspective businesses were required to apply to the office of medical cannabis," explains Sam Flint, the executive director for Kentucky's Office of Medical Cannabis. "That application required those applicants to submit documentation and information to show they were serious about being a medical cannabis business in Kentucky."
Experts say the goal is to have a dispensary within an hour of anywhere in the state. In total, 4,075 were submitted for dispensary licenses. 2,840, which is about 60% of the total, were submitted for the nine of 11 regions. Of those 2,551, or 88% of those applications, were approved to be in Monday's lottery. 329 were denied.
Monday's selection was live and streamed from the Kentucky Lottery Corporation. Flint says this process is modeled after other states who have shown success.
"Just as we have begun working with the cultivators and processors, we will work directly with these entities, and once I leave here, I am going to call every single one of them and congratulate them and talk to them about what their needs are," says Flint.
So what's the next step? Businesses that were chosen during today's lottery, will receive an email within the next 24 hours confirming that they have been approved to receive a medical cannabis dispensary license and will pay a fee prior to receiving their license.
Dispensaries still have to go through several more steps before they can start selling.
If you missed today announcement, you can check it out here.
