Kentucky medical marijuana sales expected to start weeks after program’s January launch
Lawmaker: Growing cannabis and building dispensaries will take time
Newport Democrat Rachel Roberts helped make medical marijuana legal in Kentucky in her role as a state representative.”There was really nothing else that was more popular in Kentucky or more bipartisan in Kentucky than medical cannabis,” Roberts said.The program, which will be limited in scope to start, officially launches on the first day of January.”We definitely have the most restrictive medical cannabis program in the country currently,” Roberts said.She said patients with qualifying conditions will need to temper their expectations.”The products must be grown and produced in Kentucky. So on January 1st, a lot of things will happen,” Roberts said. “People who have a qualified diagnosis will be able to apply for their cards, and the card system will start to be rolled out. Dispensaries will start to get things in place as far as their physical spaces go. But that product probably will not be able to come to market to be grown, produced, manufactured until a few months down the line.”Currently, what’s expected to be the site of a medical marijuana dispensary off U.S. 27 in Alexandria looks just like what it is: a vacant bank building.Erlanger and Florence will also have dispensaries, though it’s not clear exactly where.One thing patients need to keep in mind is that fewer than a dozen conditions will lead to a medical card in Kentucky.”We only have six diagnoses that are eligible for patients. Those are cancer, M-S, epilepsy, severe nausea, PTSD and chronic pain,” Roberts said. “Lawmakers in Kentucky were very hesitant about this program. So we’ve started in this very restricted way. But my hope is that the diagnoses will expand rapidly so that more patients and we don’t, for instance, have Crohn’s disease in there or ALS in there. So, there’s some other diagnoses that I hope to see come on board quickly.”In addition to helping more people, Roberts thinks expanding the list of qualifying conditions will make Kentucky’s pending pot marketplace more appealing to weed business owners and investors. For more on Kentucky’s medical marijuana program, click here.
Newport Democrat Rachel Roberts helped make medical marijuana legal in Kentucky in her role as a state representative.
“There was really nothing else that was more popular in Kentucky or more bipartisan in Kentucky than medical cannabis,” Roberts said.
The program, which will be limited in scope to start, officially launches on the first day of January.
“We definitely have the most restrictive medical cannabis program in the country currently,” Roberts said.
She said patients with qualifying conditions will need to temper their expectations.
“The products must be grown and produced in Kentucky. So on January 1st, a lot of things will happen,” Roberts said. “People who have a qualified diagnosis will be able to apply for their cards, and the card system will start to be rolled out. Dispensaries will start to get things in place as far as their physical spaces go. But that product probably will not be able to come to market to be grown, produced, manufactured until a few months down the line.”
Currently, what’s expected to be the site of a medical marijuana dispensary off U.S. 27 in Alexandria looks just like what it is: a vacant bank building.
Erlanger and Florence will also have dispensaries, though it’s not clear exactly where.
One thing patients need to keep in mind is that fewer than a dozen conditions will lead to a medical card in Kentucky.
“We only have six diagnoses that are eligible for patients. Those are cancer, M-S, epilepsy, severe nausea, PTSD and chronic pain,” Roberts said. “Lawmakers in Kentucky were very hesitant about this program. So we’ve started in this very restricted way. But my hope is that the diagnoses will expand rapidly so that more patients and we don’t, for instance, have Crohn’s disease in there or ALS in there. So, there’s some other diagnoses that I hope to see come on board quickly.”
In addition to helping more people, Roberts thinks expanding the list of qualifying conditions will make Kentucky’s pending pot marketplace more appealing to weed business owners and investors. For more on Kentucky’s medical marijuana program, click here.
