Kentucky Doctors Can Start Issuing Medical Marijuana Recommendations To Patients Next Month, Governor Announces

Starting on December 1, qualified patients in Kentucky will be able to receive a doctor’s recommendation to access medical marijuana, Gov. Andy Beshear (D) announced on Thursday.

Under a law the governor signed last year, regulators have been working to stand up the state’s medical cannabis program—and now the launch is just around the corner. Over 150 doctors are already certified to issue marijuana recommendations, and the state is also taking steps to simplify the registration process for patients.

As part of that effort, Beshear said his administration has created an web portal called the “Kentucky Medical Cannabis Practitioner Directory.” The online resource “will allow Kentucky patients to find the practitioner nearest to them—search within a specific city or county—or search by a specific specialty,” he said.

“Beginning December 1, the authorized practitioners will be able to begin issuing valid written certifications to Kentucky patients,” the governor said. “So on December 1, not only can you go online and find where these practitioners are, but you can go ahead and go see them and have your written certification issued to them.”

Currently, 154 health professionals are authorized to recommend medical cannabis, Beshear said. And that number is “growing steadily each week.”

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Meanwhile, Beshear also announced that an initial licensing lottery for prospective medical marijuana dispensaries in nine out of 11 regions of the state will take place next Monday. Another lottery for the remaining two regions is set for December 16.

During this month’s election, Kentucky saw more than 100 cities and counties approve local ordinances to allow medical cannabis businesses in their jurisdictions. The governor said the election results demonstrate that “the jury is no longer out” on the issue that is clearly supported by voters across partisan and geographical lines.

“Kentuckians want their families, friends and neighbors who have serious medical conditions—like cancer, multiple sclerosis or PTSD—to have safe and affordable access,” he said. “We are keeping our promise to make sure they will.”

Regulators with the Kentucky Office of Medical Cannabis (OCM) have been holding a series of licensing lotteries in recent weeks for cannabis business applicants seeking to enter the industry. So far, they’ve approved several cultivators, processors and testing facilities.

The governor signed a bill earlier this year that moved the medical cannabis licensing timetable ahead six months to allow the market to launch earlier. And regulators received about 5,000 applications for medical marijuana business licenses since opening up a two-month window that ended last month.

All told, Kentucky took in nearly $28 million in non-refundable application fees during that two-month period. With about 4,000 applications submitted for dispensary licenses—and just 48 that will be selected statewide—that means each applicant has about a 1 percent chance of being awarded the license.

The governor also recently said that once the cannabis program is up and running, he intends to rescind an executive order he issued last year to legally protect patients who possess medical cannabis purchased at out-of-state licensed retailers.

In June, the governor also announced that the state Board of Medical Licensure and Board of Nursing would simultaneously start issuing permits for doctors and nurses to issue medical cannabis recommendations to patients beginning in July.

Beshear separately participated in a historic roundtable discussion at the White House in March alongside Vice President Kamala Harris and pardon recipients who received clemency under President Joe Biden’s pardon proclamations.

After Biden issued his first pardon proclamation in 2022, Beshear said he was “actively considering” possible marijuana clemency actions the state could take and encouraged people to petition for relief in the interim. In 2021, he also talked about his desire to let Kentucky farmers grow and sell recreational cannabis across state lines.

In July, Beshear filed a federal comment in support of the Biden administration’s marijuana rescheduling proposal, saying the reform will have “substantial and meaningful impacts” on patients, communities, businesses and research.

The governor has separately urged lawmakers to expand the medical marijuana program, announcing in January that two independent advisory groups he appointed unanimously voted to recommend the addition of more than a dozen new conditions to qualify patients for medical cannabis.

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Meanwhile, the state legislature delivered a budget bill to the governor last year that includes a provision restricting funding for the medical cannabis regulatory body overseeing the state program until its advisory board determines there’s a “propensity” of research supporting the therapeutic “efficacy” of cannabis.

This January, Kentucky lawmakers filed marijuana legislation with a notable bill number: HB 420. If passed, it would have legalized and regulated cannabis for adults 21 and older, though it did not advance in the state’s Republican-controlled legislature this session.

A more limited legalization measure, HB 72, was introduced earlier that month by Rep. Nima Kulkarni (D). It would end all penalties for simple possession and use of marijuana by adults 21 and older and also allow adults to grow a small number of cannabis plants at home. Commercial sales, however, would remain prohibited. It too died, however.

Last year, Kulkarni introduced a measure that would have let voters decide whether to legalize use, possession and home cultivation. The lawmaker previously introduced a similar noncommercial legalization proposal for the 2022 legislative session.

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Photo courtesy of Max Pixel.