Kentucky
Kentucky medical cannabis rollout: 1 year after legalization, when will dispensaries open in NKY?
DAYTON, Ky. — In the year since Kentucky legalized medical cannabis, the commonwealth has seen a slow and steady rollout of the statewide program — but Northern Kentucky is still waiting on its first dispensary to open.
Four Northern Kentucky businesses received dispensary operating licenses during a state-run lottery drawing in November 2024, before one of the four original licenses was sold, resulting in the following dispensaries slated to open:
- Yellow Flowers, LLC in Erlanger (Kenton County)
- C3 Kentucky, LLC in Wilder (Campbell County)
- Bluegrass Cannacare, LLC in Florence (Boone County)
- Green Grass Cannabis, LLC in Carrollton (Carroll County)
According to Rachel Roberts, a former state lawmaker and current executive director of the Kentucky Cannabis Industry Alliance, of the four, only one, Bluegrass Cannacare, has been “completely approved” by the Kentucky Office of Medical Cannabis to operate.
“I think the other (dispensaries) are still a couple months out, as they’re building out their facilities and working through their zoning issues,” Roberts said. “Not only do facilities need to be built out, but the plant itself needs to grow. So we’re dealing with that.”
Per WCPO 9 news partner WVXU, the operators of C3 Kentucky, LLC told Wilder’s Planning and Zoning Commission in late November 2025 that they plan to begin construction on a new dispensary location along Country Drive in Wilder in early 2026.
WATCH: Northern Kentucky’s first medical cannabis business has opened. The region’s dispensaries will soon follow. Here’s when.
Kentucky medical cannabis rollout: when will dispensaries open in Northern Kentucky?
Across 11 Kentucky regions, 48 dispensaries were awarded licenses to operate.
Chad Johns, general manager of Bluegrass Cannacare, said the dispensary’s open date has, for the most part, been tethered to when the limited supply of product grows enough to sustain business.
“Right now, I hope and pray that we get enough (product) to get us through,” Johns said. “Is it enough to keep everybody open until more can come online and keep going? That’s the question.”
Roberts said the limited supply could be why other dispensaries in the region haven’t opened yet — to bide their time.
“Do they open as soon as they possibly can, or do they wait until there’s (a) more robust product array for patients?” Roberts said. “And here in Northern Kentucky, that really plays into it, because we’re right across the river from a recreational state.”
Kentucky’s first medical cannabis dispensary, The Post, opened in December in Beaver Dam, Ky. Johns said by its fourth day of operating, it ran out of products to sell to patients. After a restock this month, it is back open.
“As more cultivators come online and as more dispensaries come online, those issues are going to balance out,” he said.
There are currently four cultivators, or growers, operating in the Commonwealth. Roberts said a fifth has received its commencement inspection and “may have plants in today or as early as next week.”
Johns said Bluegrass Cannacare is eyeing a February opening date.
“(It feels) like we won the lottery — the same as when they announced our name on the state drawing a year ago,” he said. “We literally are Kentuckians who put in one application, and we hit out of 5,000. Those odds are astounding.”
While no dispensaries are open yet, Kentucky’s first operational medical cannabis processor, Bison Processing, opened on Thursday.
It will be responsible for taking Kentucky-grown cannabis and transforming it into safe, lab-tested medical products — such as tinctures, edibles and topicals — for patients registered in the Kentucky Medical Cannabis Program.
More than 17,000 Kentuckians have been approved for medical marijuana cards, Gov. Andy Beshear said on Wednesday. Roberts said, given where the rollout’s momentum is headed, anyone in Northern Kentucky interested in applying for a card should do so now.
“The fact that we, in just over a year, have dispensaries open with product variety available for the patients of Kentucky is lightning fast in the grand scheme of how medical cannabis works,” Roberts said. “I think Team Kentucky deserves a really big round of applause for the way they handled this rollout, the way that they did the regulations.”
Kentucky
Born 35 Years Ago Today in Kentucky, the Grammy-Winning Wanderer Who Gave Voice to the Appalachian Working Class
On this day (June 21) in 1991, Timothy Tyler Childers was born in Lawrence County, Kentucky. Coal and country music reigned supreme in the region near the West Virginia border, with artists like Dwight Yoakum, Loretta Lynn, and Chris Stapleton all hailing from nearby. Today, as he celebrates his 35th birthday, Tyler Childers has earned his place among those names.
How Appalachia Made Tyler Childers
He was born with clubfoot, a congenital disorder that caused both of his feet to twist out of shape. It required surgery when Childers was just 18 months old, followed by a second procedure after he turned five.
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Once spending an entire year in the wheelchair, the “In Your Love” crooner had to relearn how to walk.
He needed regular checkups at Shriners Children’s hospital in Lexington until he turned 18, and spent much of his recovery time reading.
Much like Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, and Tom Waits before him, Childers fell under the spell of writer Jack Kerouac, and those influences are still palpable in his music today.
“Kerouac was my first real permission slip to be a spiritual wanderer and say it’s okay to do that, and that it doesn’t automatically mean you are on your way to the wailing and gnashing of teeth,” he told GQ last year.
Aside from reading, music was another escape. The Americana Music Award winner sang in church on Sundays, learned guitar from his grandfather, and began writing songs at age 13.
Graduating high school in 2009, Childers tried college before dropping out to work odd jobs and fund his music career.
The Winding Path to Stardom
Tyler Childers released his debut album, Bottles and Bibles, in 2011. However, commercial success was still nearly a decade away.
That came with his 2017 album Purgatory, produced by fellow Kentuckian Sturgill Simpson (who also played guitar and sang backing vocals). Purgatory debuted at number 17 on the Billboard country albums chart and earned a Platinum certification—all without the aid of country radio.
[ Tyler Childers Postpones Tour Dates for the Best Reason Possible]
Building off that momentum, Childers released Country Squire two years later, earning a Grammy nomination for the single “All Your’n”. Then came Long Violent History (2020); Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven? (2022); Rustin’ in the Rain (2023); and Snipe Hunter (2025).
In 2023, he scored his first top 10 hit with “In Your Love”.
Featured image by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
There is an old saying that there is no such thing as a minor procedure when it happens to you. But that’s exactly what happened over the spring football season as top transfer Lance Heard had surgery on an undisclosed injury that was deemed “minor.”
While Kentucky did not release what exactly the big left tackle had surgery on, anytime you are down your starting left tackle over Spring is not ideal. The good news is Heard has plenty of SEC experience, starting at LSU before transferring to Tennessee.
The biggest thing for an offensive line is reps, but offensive coordinator Joe Sloan told KSR he was happy with what he was seeing.
“You’re starting to see them work really well together, and they have an opportunity to be a strength of our team.” If that comes to fruition, Kentucky will have a really good year. As for the fans, expect a different style this year in Kroger Field.
Kentucky’s offense will be different
Under Mark Stoops, the calling card became a physical offensive line, a punishing run scheme, and a ball control style. That offense will be very different this year, not because of a shift away from the run game, but because there will be a lot more chances taken.
Sometimes, that is a good thing, and other times it causes turnovers. Will Stein said he never called a play he didn’t think would score a touchdown. That aggressive style is what will define Stein’s time in Lexington. He chose a defensive coordinator known for dialing up the blitz. He has gone after nearly all the top recruits, and he isn’t backing down from saying he expects to be the best head coach in the country.
Will it work? I don’t know, but I do know it will look different than what Mark Stoops was putting out. But it all depends on the health of the key players Stein brought in, and that starts with a healthy offensive line.
Kentucky
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