BY MELISSA PATRICK
KENTUCKY HEALTH NEWS

Nine months after medical marijuana became legal in Kentucky, the state says the first harvest should be ready in the coming weeks, Mason Brighton reports for Spectrum News.

Kentucky’s law limits medical marijuana to state residents living with at least one of six qualifying medical conditions, including cancer of any type or form, epilepsy and other intractable seizure disorders, chronic or severe pain, multiple sclerosis, muscle spasms and spasticity, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and chronic nausea or cyclical vomiting syndrome.

“So we’re moving and we’re finally getting to a point where we’re, these patients are going to receive this medication sooner than later,” said Cannon Armstrong, executive director of Kentucky’s Office of Medical Cannabis.

Armstrong told Brighton that two of the state’s 16 cultivators are up and running, with the Armory Kentucky location in Mayfield likely to have a harvest by October. Further, he said this product will probably be sold at The Post, a dispensary in Beaver Dam, about a 40-minute drive south of Owensboro.

That said, Armstrong cautioned that “someone may step up their timeline and may get out there before that,” Brighton reports.

According to Armstrong, as of early September, more than 19,000 certifications to take part in the medical marijuana program have been granted to patients, and more than 13,000 people have received a medical marijuana card.

Kentucky Health News is an independent news service of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Kentucky, with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.