LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – CBD and Hemp products line the shelves of Joe Boese’s Hemptopia in East Louisville.
He’s hoping medical cannabis will soon be available for his customers after it becomes legal at the start of 2025.
“This is the perfect place, in my opinion, in the world to grow cannabis, to produce it, and distribute it,” Boese said.
Boese is one of the 4,075 applicants hoping to get a dispensary license and who forked over $5,000 for each application. He applied for one at Hemptopia, and one at his business in Lexington.
Only 48 dispensary licenses will be awarded across 11 different licensing regions.
“Optimism isn’t very high,” Boese said. “But if you’re in this business, this is what you’re going for.”
16 cultivators and 10 processors will be selected to get licenses on Monday, Oct. 28, determined by randomly generated numbers through the Kentucky lottery.
Kentucky Office of Medical Cannabis Executive Director Sam Flynn thinks this gives everyone who wants to be part of the new market a fair shot.
“It takes the selection process out of our hands,” Flynn said. “It puts them in the hands of an independent third party.”
It will happen in two parts: one drawing for the cultivators and processors, and a second for dispensaries.
The new law legalizing medical cannabis in Kentucky goes into effect on Jan. 1.
However, it’s still illegal under federal law. Each step of getting medical cannabis to Kentuckians, from cultivation to distribution, must be done within state lines.
Limiting the number of participants is intended to make sure the market remains stable.
“We can always grow with consumer demand,” Flynn said. “It’s much more difficult to contract a market after you’ve sort of gone big.”
Though the odds of being selected are bleak, Boese believes Kentucky’s cannabis business will have a bright future in the long run.
“I think there’s going to be hiccups at the beginning for everybody,” Boese said. “It’s going to be new, and there’s gonna be regulations and laws that we’re gonna have to deal with that we’re not familiar with.”
The entire drawing will be live-streamed as part of the Office of Medical Cannabis’ effort to give transparency to the selection process.
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