Tom O'Dell Smith is now in his third term as 86th District representative, serving all of Knox County and a portion of Laurel County. He serves on several different committees, but for the second year in a row he has been appointed as vice chair of the Licensing, Occupations and Administrative Regulations Committee.
Smith said that the recent lotteries to determine who received licenses to legally operate within Kentucky's new medical cannabis industry did not go quite as he expected it to, and it is among the topics that he would like to see addressed in the upcoming legislative session.
"That was one of the things that took a lot of our members by surprise," Smith said of how the lotteries played out, explaining that, when House Bill 829 was signed off on, the intention was for Kentucky companies to be treated preferentially.
In the end, the vast majority of cultivator, processor and dispensary licenses went to out-of-state applicants. Smith said this was largely due to the overwhelming amount of applications that were received, specifically when it came to those vying for the dispensary licenses.
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