The fate of Kentucky applicants seeking medical cannabis dispensary licenses will be decided starting in late November.
The state’s Office of Medical Cannabis (OMC) will select the winners during two lotteries held at the Kentucky Lottery Corp., the Louisville Courier Journal reported.
Winners for four licenses available in nine of Kentucky’s dispensary licensing regions will be drawn in a Nov. 25 lottery.
A Dec. 16 lottery will then determine four licensees in the remaining two regions and Jefferson and Fayette counties.
The two counties will each be awarded two dispensaries because of their size.
Kentucky is using a lottery system because the number of applicants exceeded the number of licenses allotted per business type.
The dispensary lotteries were announced Thursday by Gov. Andy Beshear, only three days after the OMC announced the 26 lottery winners of MMJ cultivator and processor licenses.
The OMC also will reopen the application portal for safety-compliance testing labs for the month of November, according to the Courier Journal.
The agency awarded three business licenses for safety compliance facilities in September.
Kentucky’s MMJ program, which the governor signed into law in March 2023, is set to begin Jan. 1 with 48 operational dispensaries.
While Kentucky’s medical marijuana law calls for four tiers of growers, the state initially awarded licenses for only Tiers I-III.
License tiers are determined by the amount of canopy space a business is allowed.
