Kentuckians vote to approve medical cannabis businesses

BELLEVUE, Ky. — Medical cannabis will be legal for Kentuckians with qualifying medical conditions starting Jan. 1.

What You Need To Know

• Fifty-three cities and 53 counties voted Tuesday on whether or not they want medical cannabis businesses to operate in their communities
• All 106 of them voted yes
• Bellevue Mayor Charlie Cleves wasn’t surprised at the outcome, but said he was surprised how overwhelming it was in favor
• Cleves said he thinks the mentality of voters was: it’s already legal, so a business might as well be able to profit here

Fifty-three cities and 53 counties voted Tuesday on whether they want medical cannabis businesses to operate in their communities. All 106 of them voted yes.

Spectrum News 1 visited one of those cities, where, despite the vote, the mayor isn’t expecting a dispensary there anytime soon.

Bellevue Mayor Charlie Cleves wasn’t surprised at the outcome, but said he was surprised how overwhelming it was in favor.

“Everybody likes the idea of medical marijuana. Only because there’s so many people that are injured or hurting or cancer,” he said. “People think it’s necessary for them to be comfortable.”

Cleves said he thinks the mentality of voters was: it’s already legal, so a business might as well be able to profit here. He said because of Bellevue’s lack of space, there’s no chance of a growing facility or processor coming.

“We don’t have anywhere where we could put a lot of that stuff. Because you need room to grow it. You need different sized warehouses,” he said.

He’s also not overly optimistic about a dispensary coming to Bellevue.

“I can’t see where more than four or five people applied from Bellevue. And that’s four or five out of 395,” Cleves said. “So the odds are against you getting it.”

That 395 is the number of applications from the nine county northern Kentucky region, of which just four dispensary licenses will be awarded through a lottery.

“Because cities like Covington, Newport have a whole bunch of them. What happens if three of the four are in one city? Then what do you do? Because people from all over those counties that are way far away from us, they’re not gonna be very happy,” Cleves said.

Florence was also one of the cities where people voted yes on this issue. Mayor Julie Metzger Aubuchon sent the following statement:

“The city of Florence held a special business meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 6, to discuss the adoption of zoning regulations and business license criteria for medical cannabis businesses. City officials have been preparing for this over the past six months, anticipating the passage of the medical cannabis ballot measure, which was approved overwhelmingly on Tuesday. The city intends to formally adopt the zoning text and business regulations within the next few weeks.”

Whether a dispensary ends up in Florence, Bellevue, or elsewhere, Cleves said he’s happy Kentuckians will have access to this form of medicine.

“I have talked to a couple people in person who said if it wasn’t for that, their life would still be miserable,” he said.

Gov. Andy Beshear. D-Ky., provided an update on medical cannabis in the commonwealth following this week’s election. Part of the new system for medical cannabis allowed local governments to make decisions about whether to let medical cannabis businesses operate within their jurisdictions or let voters decide. Twenty-one county governments made the decision to opt out — meaning not to allow medical cannabis businesses — while 39 made the decision to directly authorize these businesses. 

Fifty-three county governments opted to let voters decide. For cities, 53 opted out or were opted out by action of their counties and 184 decided to stay in. 

The governor announced that all 106 cities and counties that had medical cannabis on the ballot voted to allow medical cannabis businesses to operate in their communities. 

“This signals what we have known for a long time, which is that the jury is no longer out on medical cannabis,” said Beshear. “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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