Kenton, Boone, and Campbell counties have all passed ordinances to prohibit cannabis businesses from operating within their jurisdictions once the sale of medical marijuana becomes legal in Kentucky at the start of 2025. Still, local governments within those counties can either opt-in and allow businesses to operate or instead put the question to voters.
In total, 48 dispensary licenses, divided among 11 regions across Kentucky, will be awarded to businesses that have applied to participate in the state’s medical cannabis lottery this October. Four dispensaries selected in that lottery will be allowed to operate in each region. In the Northern Kentucky region, which contains nine counties, 395 marijuana businesses have applied to receive one of those four licenses.
A marijuana safety compliance business has already received a license to begin operations since the number of those facilities is not limited by Kentucky like dispensaries and doesn’t have to enter the lottery.
Many of those applicants in Northern Kentucky have applied to open in either Kenton, Boone, or Campbell county. Some municipalities have already decided to welcome the sale of cannabis and possibly become one of the first cities in the Commonwealth to be home to a dispensary, while others will wait to hear from voters on Nov. 5 before opting in.
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Kenton County
Kenton County has more medical marijuana applicants than any other county in the region, with a total of 232. Dispensary businesses make up 221 of those applications while the rest are applying to receive marijuana processor and cultivator licenses.
City leaders in Covington, Erlanger, and Fort Wright have already decided to allow medical sales.
Mayor pro-tem and Covington City Commissioner Ron Washington told Cincinnati Edition in September that city leaders felt comfortable welcoming dispensaries into the community.
“Basically, we said that this can be any place that a pharmacy could be with the restrictions that Kentucky put on there. People already know pharmacies have some pretty heavy-duty drugs in there. They have some opioids, they have all kinds of different things,” Washington said. “This is marijuana, this will be regulated, this will be stringent, and we want to help our citizens.”
In Crestview Hills, Elsmer, Independence, and Ludlow, citizens will vote on the issue. Edgewood, Lakeside Park, Taylor Mill, and Villa Hills are prohibiting medical cannabis for now.
With so much interest from dispensaries in the county, Sarmilili Reddy, Kenton County’s executive director of planning and development, says many cities are waiting to see how the first year of legal medical cannabis turns out before welcoming them into their city limits.
“We’re sort of a mixed bag. We have a lot of sentiments about it and really, many of the ‘no’s’ that we’ve heard are wanting to pass through this first round of applications to see how these businesses function,” she told Cincinnati Edition.
Boone County
The county has a total of 72 applicants. Sixty-four of them are for dispensaries but so far, no municipalities in Boone County have approved medical sales ahead of the election.
The city of Walton decided to opt out in August. The city of Union was the first to opt out with a temporary resolution in June, but it will still put the issue on the ballot for voters in November.
Florence adopted a resolution in June to put the issue to voters as well. While speaking about the vote on Cincinnati Edition, Florence City Council member Mel Carroll said the city decided to put it on the ballot because officials couldn’t reach a consensus.
“There’s pros and cons to having it in your city, and so we looked at those and we began to look at our council members and we realized we had somewhat of a different opinion on that, and also our community,” Carroll said. “We thought it’d be best to let the community decide.”
Campbell County
Campbell County has 44 total applications with 40 applying to open a dispensary. California is the only municipality in the county that has chosen to opt-out.
Newport and Dayton are opting in, while several others will leave it up to voters. Alexandria, Bellevue, Southgate, and Wilder are putting the issue on the ballot.
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The rest of the region
Besides Northern Kentucky’s three most populous counties, Carroll, Gallatin, Owen, Grant, Pendleton, and Bracken counties are also included in the region and have a few medical marijuana applicants between them.
Carroll, Grant, and Pendleton counties have not decided whether to permit the sale of medical marijuana and will have voters in the county decide for themselves this election.
Within Pendleton County, the city of Falmouth will have the issue on its ballot this November. The city of Warshaw in Gallatin County will also leave it up to a vote.
In Owen County, city officials in Owenton and Gratz will allow dispensaries to open. Germantown in Bracken County and Carrollton in Carroll County have also opted in.
Crittenden, Dry Ridge, and Williamstown in Grant County have all decided to ban cannabis sales for now.
What’s next
The uncertainty around the results of the state’s license lottery leaves the question of where the region’s first marijuana dispensaries will be located a mystery for now. Cities in Northern Kentucky will have a clearer picture of that closer to election day. Kentucky will determine which cannabis businesses will be the first to receive licenses to operate just a week before votes in the general election start getting tallied. The state’s lottery is set for Oct. 28.
Four dispensaries will be allowed to operate in each region and 395 marijuana businesses have applied to receive one of those four licenses in the Northern Kentucky region encompassing nine counties. Read More