Kentucky Governor Touts ‘Overwhelming Support’ For Medical Marijuana After Sweeping Local Victories At The Ballot

Kentucky’s governor says the result of Tuesday’s election—which saw more than 100 cities and counties approve local ordinances to allow medical cannabis businesses in their jurisdictions—demonstrations that “the jury is no longer out” on the issue that is clearly supported by voters across partisan and geographical lines.

While advocates for cannabis reform endured a series of key losses during on Election Day, with legalization proposals defeated in three states, Kentucky voters in 53 cities and 53 counties all approved the local reform proposals at the ballot.

Gov. Andy Beshear (D), who signed a medical marijuana legalization bill into law last year, said on Thursday that’s evidence that the question of cannabis reform is effectively settled in the Bluegrass State.

“This signals what we have known for a long time, which is that the jury is no longer out on medical cannabis,” Beshear said. “Kentuckians want their families, friends and neighbors who have serious medical conditions—like cancer, multiple sclerosis or PTSD—to have safe and affordable access. We are keeping our promise to make sure they will.”

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As of Wednesday, a total of more than 340,000 votes were cast in favor of allowing medical cannabis businesses in a combined 106 Kentucky cities and counties. The latest ordinances add to the more than 40 cities that already approved allowing marijuana businesses. Only 20 have passed resolutions to ban the cannabis industry from working in their area.

“We saw overwhelming support at the polls for our new system of medical cannabis,” Beshear said during his Team Kentucky presser on Thursday. “In every single place that medical cannabis was put on the ballot, it won—meaning citizens of every part of Kentucky said that it is time and they want to see this option in their community.”

With the medical marijuana law set to take effect in January, regulators with the Office of Medical Cannabis (OCM) have been holding lotteries in recent weeks for cannabis business applicants seeking to enter the industry. So far, they’ve approved several cultivators, processors and testing facilities. A dispensary application lottery will take place on December 16.

Starting on December 1, doctors will be able to start issuing medical marijuana recommendations to patients, who can then begin applying for their medical cannabis cards on January 1.

Qualified patients with written certifications will be able to register for a medical cannabis card beginning January 1, 2025. Learn more: https://t.co/hml1mITYuQ 2/2

— Kentucky Office of Medical Cannabis (@MedCanKY) November 6, 2024

The governor separately signed a bill earlier this year that moved the medical cannabis licensing timetable ahead six months to allow the market to launch earlier.

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 October 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.

This map shows the current landscape for medical cannabis business operations in Kentucky. 2/2 pic.twitter.com/V0QUtDh3H8

— Kentucky Office of Medical Cannabis (@MedCanKY) November 7, 2024

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 October 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 Mike Latimer.