Kentucky
Kentucky to open applications for the state's medical marijuana business
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Businesses that want to sell, process or grow medical marijuana for Kentucky can start applying for permits starting Monday, part of an accelerated push to have products available in early 2025, Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday.
Doctors and advanced practice registered nurses also can begin submitting applications to let them certify eligible patients to buy the drug. The state’s Board of Medical Licensure and Board of Nursing will oversee the process.
The Bluegrass State’s medical cannabis program begins Jan. 1. Kentucky’s Republican-dominated Legislature passed the law with bipartisan support in 2023, legalizing medical cannabis for people suffering from a list of debilitating illnesses. Beshear, a Democrat, quickly signed the measure into law and his administration has been working on program regulations since then.
The governor signed follow-up legislation this past spring moving up the timeline for cannabis business licensing by six months.
The state has already broadcast a series of YouTube webinars, issued a business licensing application guide and other materials to assist applicants. Businesses can apply for licenses through the end of August. The goal is to have some medical cannabis available in January when the products become legal, Beshear has said.
Patients can apply for medical cannabis cards starting Jan. 1 if they have qualifying illnesses, including cancer, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, epilepsy, chronic nausea or post-traumatic stress disorder.
The state is committed to ensuring Kentuckians with qualifying medical conditions have “safe, affordable access to medical cannabis,” state Health and Family Services Secretary Eric Friedlander said Thursday.
In April, Beshear said the state will use a lottery system to award its first round of business licenses.
“The program is focused on ensuring cannabis business licensing is fair, transparent and customer-service oriented,” said Sam Flynn, executive director of the Kentucky Office of Medical Cannabis.
The state initially will issue 48 dispensary licenses divided among 11 regions. Each region will get at least four, with most counties limited to one each. The counties home to Louisville and Lexington are the exceptions, and will each be allowed two licenses, Beshear’s administration has said. The first license lottery will be in October.
A limited number of licenses to grow and process cannabis also will be issued.
License caps are meant to avoid flooding the market, which would hurt both businesses and patients, the governor has said. The program can be expanded depending on demand and whether more qualifying medical conditions are added.
“You can always scale up,” Beshear said in April. “Scaling back hurts businesses, hurts people and hurts access.”
Kentucky
John Calipari reflects on Tyler Herro's time at Kentucky
John Calipari saw the early signs of the player that Tyler Herro would eventually become during the guard’s freshman year at Kentucky. When Herro was a freshman on the team in 2018-19, Calipari remembers that he practically lived inside the gym.
The guard would go on to average 14.0 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game in being named to the All-SEC Freshman team. He also helped lead Kentucky to the Elite Eight that season.
Herro was selected 13th overall to the Miami Heat in the 2019 NBA Draft and has carved out a role as a key piece for the franchise since then. Calipari opened up on his experience coaching Herro recently on the Pat McAfee Show.
“His dad told me — and when I listen to his dad I’ve gotta take it with a grain of salt — ‘You’ll have no one work harder than him,’” he said. “And a couple of F-bombs in there if you know his dad, Chris. The kid lived in the practice facility. Literally never left the gym.
“I don’t believe in the McDonald’s game, Four-star or whatever. Ends up being a player that Pat (Riley) absolutely loves in Miami. I was lucky because the dad was the one that said, ‘I want him playing for you.’ When I went and met the dad and mom and saw Tyler, I’m like, ‘I love this kid.’”
Herro has since grown into a starting spot with the Heat and averaged 20.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.5 assists this past season. He is one of many high-profile recruits from Calipari who went on to have success in the NBA along with Julius Randle, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Devin Booker and several others.
He has dealt with injuries over the past two seasons but never failed to make an impact during the times he was available. He signed a contract extension with Miami in 2022 to keep him through the 2026-27 season, signifying the franchise’s belief in him as a long-term piece.
Calipari has since moved on from Kentucky to take the head coaching job at Arkansas, where he will look to build the same reputation for turning players pro. The Razorbacks are coming off of missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019 and have a completely revamped roster with some of the players who Calipari recruited to Kentucky.
We’ll see how well it works out for the coach this coming season, but players like Tyler Herro prove a reminder of the talent he attracts.
Kentucky
2022 East Kentucky Leadership recipient dies
AKRON, Ohio. (WYMT) – Willie Lamb, of McRoberts, died on June 22, 2024.
In 2022 Lamb received the 2022 Carolyn Sundy Award for his dedication to Eastern Kentucky.
The McRoberts community dedicated a bench in Lamb’s honor.
Lamb was married to his wife for 50 years and they had seven children together.
His arrangements are set for Saturday, July 6 at 12 p.m. at the Church of God Militant Pillar and Ground of Truth in Akron.
Copyright 2024 WYMT. All rights reserved.
Kentucky
Judge rules against Jewish women challenging Kentucky's abortion ban • Kentucky Lantern
Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Brian Edwards has ruled against a motion made by three Jewish women seeking to challenge Kentucky’s abortion ban on religious grounds.
In a 9-page Friday night opinion, Edwards wrote the women do not have standing and that their concerns are “hypothetical.”
Citing several precedential cases, the judge said the issue was not yet a concrete problem and lacked “ripeness.”
“Individuals cannot manufacture standing merely by inflicting harm on themselves based on their fears of hypothetical future harm that is not certainly impending,” Edwards wrote.
Louisville judge hears arguments in Jewish women’s challenge of Kentucky’s abortion ban
Therefore, he wrote, “plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate the existence of a justiciable controversy as defined by generations of case law.”
This comes more than a month after the judge heard oral arguments, which heavily focused on in vitro fertilization (IVF) and the extent to which it overlaps with the state’s abortion ban.
One of the plaintiffs has nine frozen embryos that she’s paying thousands of dollars annually to preserve, just as Kentucky lawmakers are split on what protections exist for IVF in the state.
The women’s lawyers — Benjamin Potash and Aaron Kemper — argued that by banning most abortions, Kentucky had imposed and codified a religious viewpoint that conflicts with the Jewish belief that birth, not conception, is the beginning of life.
They also said their plaintiffs — Lisa Sobel, Jessica Kalb and Sarah Baron — feel Kentucky’s current laws around abortion inhibit their ability to grow their families.
Benjamin Potash, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, told the Lantern in a text that the decision “makes numerous obvious errors,” such as basing part of the ruling on a reading of Roe V. Wade, which had established the constitutional right to abortion but was overturned in 2022 by the United States Supreme Court.
Assistant Attorney General Lindsey Keiser defended the law on May 13 for the state attorney general, who praised Friday’s decision “to uphold Kentucky law.”
“Most importantly, the Court eliminates any notion that access to IVF services in our Commonwealth is at risk,” Attorney General Russell Coleman said in a statement. “Today’s opinion is a welcome reassurance to the many Kentuckians seeking to become parents.”
Potash said the judge’s decision is “disappointing” and said “we look forward to review by higher courts.”
“After 13 months of waiting, we received a nine page decision that we feel fails to comport with the law,” he said. “Our nation is waiting for a judiciary brave enough to do what the law and our traditions require.”
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