The lottery for licenses to sell medical marijuana in Kentucky touts transparency and selections are made live on camera. But what happens before the lottery has Kentucky hopefuls saying the odds are not the same for everyone.
"I hate the thought of this new, brand new industry is going to go to outsiders," Dee Dee Taylor, 502 Hemp CEO, said. "I would rather keep it local and support actual Kentuckians because it's Kentucky patients that are going to be buying these products."
Taylor is among small business owners saying it's hard to compete with deep pockets from out-of-state who can afford multiple applications for newly created LLCs. Some like Hemptopia owner Joe Boese are taking a big chance on the license lottery.
He saved 5 years to buy his way in with the $5,000 non-refundable application fee, and he says he was contacted by multiple out-of-state interests looking to make a deal. "I'm not going to disclose the money that they offered," Boese said, "but they wanted me to pay for the licensing, but they did all the paperwork, and if I hit, they were going to give me a nice little chunk of change to let them have it."
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