By Patricia Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
Kenton County mayors gathered Saturday morning to discuss the latest news in state requirements for medical marijuana.
The state has mandated application of the new medical marijuana law in January of 2025 and Planning and Development Services of Kenton County are doing their best to help cities acquire legislation prior to the law.
Sharmili Reddy, executive director of Kenton County Planning and Development Services, speaks to the Mayor’s Group. (Photo by Patricia Scheyer/NKYTribune)
“During this legislative session, Kentucky legislators have been working hard on modifying some of those state requirements, along with the administrative regulation,” said PDS Executive Director Sharmili Reddy. “So just so you know, there’s the KRS set (of regulations) that governs the medical cannabis, but there are also administrative regulations that are put out by the Cabinet of Health and Family Services, the Office of Medical Cannabis that is out there that governs the use.”
She said there was a bill passed in the House just this past week that allowed for some modifications to the KRS, and one of the things it did allow was having the cultivators get their license earlier than January due to competition. They could possibly be allowed to get their licenses starting in July if the bill goes through.
She explained that even if the early licensing does go through at the state level, there is a provision in the law for the cities to install legislation at a local level.
Reddy stressed to the mayors that this is a heavily regulated business, at every level, so that should be a consideration when drafting local legislation.
She also told them that all of the uses for medical marijuana have to be totally indoors, so they can’t be located in someone’s backyard or front yard.
“The options that cities have for the KRS right now are that you can outright prohibit the use, you can say you don’t want to allow any medical marijuana use within our local jurisdiction,” Reddy explained. “You can allow the use, you can say that it is allowed in certain zones, or you can pass a resolution to put it to the voters to make the decision.”
Kenton Mayor Group chair, Erlanger Mayor Jessica Fette (Photo by Patricia Scheyer/NKyTribune)
Reddy stipulated that if a city outright disallows it there is a referendum option that a resident or someone in your city can pursue to overturn that option.
The bottom line however, is that the cities have to take some action on this issue.
There are five uses for the medical marijuana; cultivation, processing, producing, which is a combination of cultivation and processing, dispensary, which is the pharmacy component, and safety compliance facility, which is making sure the marijuana is safe for consumption.
From a zoning standpoint, Reddy said it could be fairly straightforward. For cultivation, it would have to be put in an industrial zone. For a dispensary, which is similar to a pharmacy, it can be allowed in any zone that allows pharmacies.
There is currently a provision that a city has to allow all of the uses or prohibit all of the uses, and Reddy said they are looking for clarification of that provision, since some of the smaller cities do not have an industrial zone.
Fort Wright CAO Jill Bailey asked how the cities will be able to handle people who have medical marijuana as far as employee rules go. She wondered if the panels that screen employees for drugs would have to be changed to say employees cannot be impaired if they come to work, since they will be allowed to have marijuana in their systems.
Reddy said there is a provision in the KRS that some of the rules will have to be changed about employee drug testing.
The same thing will go for people operating a vehicle — the driver cannot be impaired.
Reddy said that PDS has prepared some information about the issue, with zoning recommendations, but since the legislators are still tweaking the rules, she said she doesn’t want to put out information and then have to change it so she told the mayors that she hoped to have something to them by next month.
Erlanger Mayor Jessica Fette said that the speaker for April’s meeting will be Dr. Michael Reeser, who specializes in PTSD in first responders, who will talk about the medical side of who is eligible for medical marijuana.
She said that Sam Flynn, Executive Director of the State Office of Medical Marijuana, would also attend the meeting to answer questions.
