LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The race is on to grow and sell medical marijuana in Kentucky; the governor revealed thousands applied for those coveted licenses on Thursday.
One of the applicants is Dee Dee Taylor, the CEO and founder of 502 Hemp Wellness Center in Louisville.
She was amazed at the thousands of applications from people hoping to get in on the medical cannabis business in Kentucky.
"The numbers are crazy I would have not expected that much," Taylor said. She's been selling legal hemp products for the past six years.
But Taylor is one of thousands of people waiting to find out who will get approved for one of the two licenses available in Louisville to sale medical cannabis.
"With that many people vying for two dispensaries here I'm just not worried about it, I'm not losing any sleep over it," she said.
Of the 4,998 applications, 630 were for a dispensary license in the Kentuckiana region.
"But most regions only get four dispensaries and that's it and some counties have already opted out of even getting one," Taylor said.
Gov. Andy Beshear announced the 4,998 applications were submitted to either cultivate, process, dispense or test medical cannabis.
Kentucky has collected over $20 million in non-refundable fees. With the overwhelming amount of applications, a lottery will start in October.
"Doing it right, ensuring that the process is fair getting through the lotteries and getting up and running," Beshear said.
He said 49 people will look over those applications.
Jennifer Dunegan depends on medical cannabis for epilepsy, cerebral palsy and gastroparesis.
"I have good days and I have bad days and then there's really bad days," she said.
Dunegan has to drive to Cincinnati just to get treatment and is concerned about the limited number of dispensary licenses in Kentucky.
"It's not going to be near enough they're not going to have enough product for the amount of people that need medical cannabis," she said.
No matter who is chosen for a license, Taylor hopes Kentuckians win.
"I really hope that we create the jobs we need and we get the patients the help they need," Taylor said.
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