The governor of Kentucky announced on Thursday that the state has received nearly 5,000 medical marijuana business license applications as of last weekend, a level of interest that has taken officials by surprise.

During the two-month application window that opened on July 1, Kentucky’s Office of Medical Cannabis (OCM) said 4,998 proposals were submitted, with the vast majority (88 percent) applying to become licensed dispensaries.

Gov. Andy Beshear (D) also said during a press conference 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.

“When we launched this program, our goal was to ensure that our licensing process was transparent and provided everyone a fair shot at being a part of this new, exciting industry,” Beshear said. “Today, the results are clear. The incredible interest in this process, especially among Kentuckians, is proof that this program has met that goal and is set up for success now and moving forward.”

OCM has ramped up staffing to review the applications ahead of a planned lottery to award the licenses next month. Cultivator and processor applications will first be prioritized.

Beshear said regulators received a “big flood” of applications days before the window closed, and he acknowledged that the state is “going to have some challenges getting through those total number of applications, doing it right, ensuring that the process is fair, getting through the lotteries and getting up and running.”

All told, Kentucky took in nearly $28 million in non-refundable application fees during the two-month period, WHAS 11 reported. With almost 4,076 applications submitted for dispensary licenses—and just 48 that will be selected statewide under the legalization law Beshear signed last year—that means each applicant has about a 1 percent chance of being awarded the license.

During Thursday’s briefing, Beshear was also asked about rumors that certain prospective licensees stacked applications to increase their chances of being selected. He said he believed the system was designed to prevent application stacking, but “it’s something we will look at.”

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

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 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.