Kentucky medical marijuana licenses awarded in lottery

The Kentucky Office of Medical Cannabis announced 26 winners of medical marijuana cultivator and processor licenses after its licensing lottery Monday.

Of those selected, Gov. Andy Beshear announced two applicants from Jefferson County, 1248 KYP LLC and Synapse Remedies LLC. Officials from the Office of Medical Cannabis and the Kentucky Lottery Corporation managed the lottery draws for four classifications, cultivators in Tiers I-III and processors.

Here are all 26 businesses awarded licenses Monday:

Businesses selected in Monday's lottery are not immediately qualified to receive a license. They are required to pay a licensing fee within 15 days, or else forfeit the ability to receive a license, said Sam Flynn, the executive director of the Office of Medical Cannabis.

The lottery, hosted by the Kentucky Lottery Corporation at its Louisville headquarters, included prospective businesses who submitted valid applications for establishing processing and cultivation businesses, according to the Kentucky Office of Medical Cannabis website. A date for a dispensary licenses lottery will be announced during a Team Kentucky update Thursday, Beshear said.

The lottery comes ahead of the Jan. 1, 2025 start date for the medical marijuana program, which was established after the Kentucky legislature passed a bill in 2023 legalizing medical cannabis in the commonwealth. A total of 48 dispensaries will be operational when the program begins. Each county will get one dispensary, aside from the the commonwealth's two largest counties — Jefferson and Fayette — which will get two each.

The commonwealth opted to distribute licenses through a lottery because the number of applicants exceeded the number of allotted licenses per business type.

Applications for medical marijuana business licenses were accepted from July 1-Aug. 31. Three business licenses for safety compliance facilities had previously been awarded prior to Monday's lottery, which don't require a separate lottery process because the law allows an uncapped number of them.

Businesses with a cultivator license can grow medical marijuana plants in an enclosed and locked facility. They're also authorized to sell their products to medical cannabis processors, producers or dispensaries in Kentucky.

There are four tiers of cultivators in Kentucky, but the commonwealth is only distributing licenses for the first three tiers in the initial licensing phase. The tiers are based on how much space the business is permitted to grow in.

Businesses with a processor license can process raw plant material into medical marijuana products. They're then able to sell or transfer their products to other medical marijuana businesses in the Kentucky, like dispensaries.