Kentucky awards the first business license for its startup medical cannabis program

Kentucky awarded the first business license for its startup medical cannabis program on Thursday, selecting a laboratory that will be assigned to test the products before being offered to patients.

Gov. Andy Beshear called it another step toward ensuring that Kentuckians suffering from a list of serious illnesses have access to safe products when the program launches at the start of 2025.

The first license went to KCA Labs, a hemp-testing facility operating in Nicholasville, Kentucky, he said.

“I love that the first license is going to an entity that helps us do this safely,” Beshear said at a news conference in Frankfort.

Kentucky will use a lottery system to award initial licenses to businesses wanting to sell, process or grow medical marijuana for patients in the Bluegrass State.

But there’s no limit on the number of initial licenses being awarded to safety compliance facilities — the category that KCA Labs comes under — meaning there’s no need for a lottery.

These facilities will test every medical cannabis product before reaching eligible patients, guaranteeing the products are held to the highest medical standards, Beshear said Thursday.

“Our mission is to ensure Kentuckians with serious medical conditions have access to safe and high-quality, tested medical cannabis products,” the governor said.

“That’s exactly what KCA is going to help us do,” he added.

KCA Labs is ready for the task, said Jonathan Thompson, its CEO.

“KCA’s vast knowledge and experience with testing hemp products will translate neatly into Kentucky’s new medical cannabis program,” he said.

The lottery to award licenses to cultivators and processors will be on Oct. 28, the governor said. The lottery for dispensary licenses will be announced later but will likely be in November, Beshear said.

The governor has called the lottery a fair way to give each applicant that cleared the screening process an opportunity to land a license. Caps on those licenses are meant to avoid flooding the market with products and exceeding demand, Beshear has said

The state received nearly 5,000 applications for medical cannabis business licenses.

Medical marijuana supporters in Kentucky overcame years of setbacks when state lawmakers passed the measure last year legalizing medical cannabis for people suffering from a range of debilitating illnesses, including cancer, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, epilepsy, chronic nausea and post-traumatic stress disorder. Beshear signed follow-up legislation in April that moved up the timeline for licensing cannabis businesses by six months, enabling licenses to be awarded in 2024.

Bruce Schreiner, The Associated Press