The Henderson City Commission is in favor of allowing medical cannabis facilities in the city.
“We’re going to move forward with the idea that we’re going to allow for medical cannabis dispensaries,” said Mayor Brad Staton at Tuesday’s city commission meeting.
Staton said this will allow people with some medical conditions to get the pain relief they need.
The commission agreed Tuesday to send a zoning ordinance related to medical cannabis businesses to the Henderson-Henderson County Joint Planning Commission for review at its June 4 meeting.
State legislation enacted in the 2023 General Assembly session made medical cannabis available for patients who have a qualifying diagnosis and have a medical cannabis card.
This was to go into effect on Jan.1, 2025, but HB 829, passed by the General Assembly and then signed by Gov. Andy Beshear on April 17, provided that licensing for businesses can begin on July 1, which would allow for businesses to get started so that people with cannabis cards would be able to purchase it in January.
If the city were to take no action, then according to Kentucky’s medical cannabis law, it defaults to allowing medical cannabis businesses to operate within its boundaries.
Because the city commission is in favor of allowing medical cannabis businesses, city staff believed it best to designate through zoning the areas where those businesses will be able to locate.
“If people want to make the investment…we want to be able to say on July 1, these are the areas that you can be in our community,” said City Attorney Dawn Kelsey.
According to state law, cannabis businesses can’t be located within 1,000 feet of schools or daycares. Kelsey said when that was drawn up on a map, the areas where those businesses can be located are limited.
Furthermore, regarding dispensaries—the retail outlets where medical cannabis will be sold—there can only be four total in one region, of which 11 were designated statewide, according to HB 829. Henderson is a part of the Green River Region, which also includes Daviess, Hancock, Ohio, McLean, Union and Webster counties. And no county may have more than one dispensary.
If the number of municipalities in a region wanting a dispensary is more than four, a lottery will occur to designate where the four will be located, said Kelsey.
Other cannabis businesses, aside from dispensaries, have no regional restrictions, said the legislation.
In the proposed zoning ordinance the city is sending to the planning commission, dispensaries will be permitted in the highway commercial district.
If that were approved, the only areas where a dispensary could be located are on the 41-strip, parts of Green Street and Ky. 2084, Kelsey said.
Additionally, the proposed zoning allows the cannabis businesses related to testing laboratories, cultivators, processors and producers in light industrial zones. It proposes to allow cultivators, processors and producers in heavy industrial zones. And it proposes to allow cultivator businesses in agriculture districts.
Kelsey pointed out that cultivators, or growing facilities, must all be enclosed and locked facilities, such as greenhouses or grow houses. She said there will not be any open field grow farms in Kentucky.
Processors are those businesses that process or package raw cannabis plant material into approved forms of medical cannabis. No medical cannabis in Kentucky will be smoked, according to state cannabis law.
Additional provisions of the state law are that cannabis-related businesses must be licensed by the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services and employees of these businesses must be 21 years or older and cannot have been convicted of a disqualifying felony (a violent offender or a drug-related felony in last five years), said Kelsey.
Finally, medial cannabis dispensaries will be stand-alone businesses that will only sell medical cannabis to people with cards, Kelsey said. Pharmacies will not sell medical cannabis, she said.