The great cannabis license robbery continues apace, state by state……
Only one business to win a medical marijuana license in Kentucky’s first dispensary lottery was made up of only Kentucky residents.
Just as most of the businesses that won 26 medical marijuana cultivator and processor licenses in Kentucky’s first lottery in October were formed by out-of-state residents, so too were the 36 applicants who won dispensary licenses in the November lottery.
A Kentucky Public Radio review of the medical cannabis applications of dispensary license winners found that 33 were made up of individuals who are not residents of the state and had not owned or worked for a business there.
Just two of the businesses to win a dispensary license listed a Kentucky resident as an owner, including one that had a single Kentuckian among the six listed owners on its application. Another company indicated in its application that its owner lived in Florida, but worked for a company based in Kentucky.
At least half of the 36 dispensary license winners listed executives that own, are employed by or are affiliated with marijuana companies that operate in other states. This includes four winners who were organized by an executive of Arkansas marijuana company Dark Horse Cannabis. Companies formed by the same executive previously won a cultivator and processor license in the October lottery.
This continues the trend from the first license lottery of the Kentucky Office of Medical Cannabis in October, in which a majority of cultivator and processor license winners had ties to out-of-state marijuana companies. Kentucky hemp farmers were particularly aggrieved, as they were shut out from winning any of the cultivator licenses and claimed deep-pocketed companies were able to rig the process with a flood of expensive applications.
Gov. Andy Beshear has defended the lottery process and said it was the fairest and most transparent way to award medical cannabis licenses. He said a competitive scoring system that favored in-state applicants likely would have drawn litigation from companies and delayed the new program, which has happened in several other states.
The Nov. 25 lottery awarded four dispensary licenses in each of nine regions. The final dispensary license lottery took place after the publication of this story Monday, with 12 applicants selected in the Louisville and Lexington regions. The owners of these winners will not be known until the state turns over their applications, presumably next week.
Two businesses to win dispensary licenses in November listed their owners as executives of Mango Cannabis, a marijuana company with medical cannabis dispensaries in Oklahoma.
Two other dispensary license winners in Bowling Green were formed by the attorney of Canna Zoned MLS — a Michigan-based firm that helps cannabis companies with real estate across the country — and listed their owners as a realtor of that company and the wife of its owner. Both applications listed the same address for where their dispensaries would be located.
More dark horse lottery winners
Another similarity in the Nov. 25 dispensary lottery was the success of companies formed by an executive of Dark Horse Cannabis, an Arkansas marijuana company.
Sean Clarkson, the co-founder and chief financial officer of Dark Horse Cannabis, organized at least 350 new companies in Kentucky ahead of the application deadline this summer. Those companies submitted more than 100 cultivator and processor applications and ended up winning one of each in the October lottery.
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