It’s still a mystery if or when a medical cannabis dispensary will open in Henderson.
It often takes time for a new business to get footing and the starting date for legal medical cannabis businesses to operate in Kentucky was only Jan.1. Still, city of Henderson officials say the businesses that drew to locate here have not contacted them.
Several city officials were contacted by the Hendersonian, and each said they have not been contacted by either OTC KY 3 LLC, which was the first business drawn for Henderson, or Tree Soft LLC, which was the second business drawn.
The statewide drawing, conducted by the Kentucky Lottery Corp., occurred Nov. 25. On that date, the drawing for nine of the state’s 11 regions as designated by the Office of Medical Cannabis took place. By law, a region can have no more than four medical cannabis dispensaries, and a county can have only one.
With two businesses drawn for Henderson, the first drawn has priority, and according to the Office of Medical Cannabis, the second “will be required to move to another jurisdiction that allows cannabis business operations.”
That would mean the OTC KY 3 LLC has priority and Tree Soft LLC would need to move to a different jurisdiction.
The city of Henderson’s occupational license tax division reported that neither of the businesses have contacted it to file the required paperwork to open.
“Nothing has come to our office yet,” Martina Aldridge, the occupational tax administrator, said a couple weeks ago. A check with her office Tuesday revealed the same.
She said that for a business to open or pull a permit for work or remodel on a building, one of the first required steps is to file with the occupational license tax division.
As part of the application process with the state Office of Medical Cannabis, applicants needed to supply an address where they would locate the dispensary. The Hendersonian filed an open records request with the state Office of Medical Cannabis for the applications of the two businesses drawn for Henderson.
According to the application for OTC KY 3 LLC, it planned to locate its medical cannabis dispensary at 2452 U.S. 41-North, the current location of Shoney’s.
According to Tree Soft LLC’s application, it planned to locate its medical cannabis dispensary at 1309 S. Green St., where Kelly’s Beauty had been located.
Both cannabis businesses are run by owners from out of state. OTC KY 3 LLC’s primary contact is listed as Robbin Yousiff of San Diego, Calif. Tree Soft LLC’s primary contact is listed as Anjanette Rodriguez of Broomfield, Colo.
The Hendersonian called both phone numbers listed on the application for the businesses recently. Neither have returned the call. Additionally, an email was sent to Yousiff, and no response has come.
Additionally, the Hendersonian last week asked the state Office of Medical Cannabis in an email the number of medical cannabis dispensaries that thus far have opened in the state. The Hendersonian as of Tuesday had not received a response.
