LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Since the online portal opened on July 1, applications for the limited number of medical cannabis business licenses haven't exactly flooded the system.
As of Monday, July 22, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services said the Kentucky Medical Cannabis Program had received a total of just 18 applications: five total for Cultivator licenses (3 for Tier I, 1 for Tier II, and 1 for Tier III), two total for Processor licenses, and 11 total for Dispensary licenses.
Two of the 11 dispensary applications are for Jefferson County/Louisville Metro.
However, the site plans for those two applications could turn out to be a waste if Metro Council moves forward on recommendations by Planning and Zoning.
In addition to the state mandate that a medical marijuana business must be at least 1,000 feet away from a school and a registered daycare, there is a proposal to require the same separation from other places, including:
- existing parks
- public playgrounds
- outdoor recreation uses and athletic facilities
- community centers
- libraries
- religious buildings
- other dispensaries
"I don't know where you're going to be able to put this dispensary where these people can get their medicine," Councilman Dan Seum, Jr, R-District 13, told the Planning and Zoning Committee on July 16.
The committee decided to table the issue until they meet again on Tuesday, July 30.
Seum filed amendments to remove the additional location restrictions.
"They're pushing these out into more industrial type areas where they're sight unseen," Seum said. "The state bill says it's got to be easily accessible."
Seum said the proposed ordinance for more restrictions is a move in anticipation that recreational marijuana will eventually become legal.
The sponsor, Councilwoman Madonna Flood (D-District 24), acknowledged to FOCUS that she doesn't want the city to have to play catch up on effectively regulating legal marijuana of any kind.
"If they're trying to do this because of [recreational], I just don't think that they should do that right now," Dee Dee Taylor, owner of 502 Hemp, said.
For now, the state is allowing only two dispensaries in all of Jefferson County.
Taylor, 48, hopes to open one of them.
She's currently working on her application and plans to submit early next month.
If there are more approved applications than available licenses, a lottery will decide who will get them.
Although the number of applications is currently relatively low, the Cabinet said there were 511 registered accounts on the application portal as of July 22.
Taylor expected plenty of competition in Jefferson County, and she said more rules on location separation would be even more of a burden.
"That'd be horrible to actually get picked in the lottery, and now you can't find a place because of local ordinances," she said.
It's why she has a pair of backup locations; however, one of them could be in jeopardy.
"It's near a park, and a church," Taylor pointed out. "Far enough away from a church, but not a thousand feet."