Flemingsburg Police Chief Brian Bowling speaks to Flemingsburg City Council about an ordinance on medical cannabis. Lauren Tatman/The Ledger Independent FLEMINGSBURG — Flemingsburg City Council recently held the first reading of an ordinance in favor of medical cannabis businesses in city limits.
At the council meeting, Flemingsburg Police Chief Brian Bowling spoke to council members about medical cannabis.
Bowling walked to the podium and expressed this has been discussed for a few months and there has been a lot of training they have been through in the past six months.
“When the state of Kentucky passed this the law that passed, medical cannabis will be allowed on Jan. 1 of 2025. They went back and that was two years ago, they went back and passed some additional ordinances this year or some different laws this year that says the preparation work that has to go into that effective July 1 of this year,” Bowling stated.
He said the state had to back the licensing up because if you are going to sell a medical cannabis product on Jan. 1, 2025, you have to grow it.
“Marijuana is a schedule one drug federal level so you can’t transport that stuff across state lines, so the marijuana that’s grown in, in Ohio can’t be brought over here in any form and then so for medical purchases,” Bowling stated.
He further said the city has a couple of choices beginning with an option to pass a resolution stating the city won’t allow it in Flemingsburg.
The second option would be for the council to do nothing and on Jan. 1 2025 the sales of medical cannabis would be legal in Flemingsburg, per state jurisdiction.
“Prior to that they can start issuing licenses to people who are going to open these dispensaries and people who wish to produce a product and so that office they’ve created at the state level really needs to know these answers fairly soon,” Bowling stated.
He said the state would then take those answers to figure out where to place those dispensaries.
“The third option is we can pass an ordinance that still allows it to be legally produced here and legally sold here as medical cannabis but it allows us to put some on time, place and manner of when it can be distributed,” Bowling stated.
He said that option is what the ordinance he has shared with the council is, it can put some restrictions over what the state has put in place.
That ordinance was produced in reference to one from the state of Michigan and then compared to the Kentucky state law and changed the way it needed to be changed.
“The reason I would encourage you to do this it it will specifically lay out where, where people can put these, these facilities within our city limits,” Bowling stated.
He said state law has stated it cannot be within 1,000 feet of a school or daycare and the city can go further and say there has to be zoning of light industrial or heavy industrial.
Council member Marty Voiers asked Bowling what a safety compliance facility was, Bowling stated it is a lab that will test products to make sure it is what the product has stated it is.
“If they are producing a, something that’s going to be vaped for example and, and it’s supposed to be dosed at let’s say eight percent THC, that’s a facility it’s, it’s a laboratory that’s going to test the THC level is consistent with what it’s being packaged as,” Bowling stated.
Voiers further asked if it is being cultivated and produced in Flemingsburg would they have to test it there and Bowling stated that labs can be any place.
“They’re going to put 48 dispensaries across the state they’re divided up into 11 different districts uh Lexington and Louisville are getting a couple of additional dispensaries because their population size,” Bowling stated.
He said except Lexington and Louisville, every district will get four dispensaries and they will push it to where the population is.
Voiers asked if there can be additional locations added to the 1,000 feet restriction and Bowling stated they can.
“When you look at Flemingsburg there’s very few areas that they’re going to be able to place a cannabis business because of location of our schools already and our daycare’s already,” Bowling stated.
He said the police department, business district and industrial park are all outside of that though.
“If we go with option b which is to allow it we would like to put some additional restrictions on,” Bowling stated.
He said there would be a $5,000 per year license fee including ten percent of what the state is charging to offset some costs.
“You all can choose to do nothing and state law will apply and it’ll be here and be able to operate under the, the state rules,” Bowling stated.
Voiers said he thought there should be regulations in place and advised to pass a first reading of the proposed ordinance.
“If we’re not going to allow in Fleming County and not going to allow in Flemingsburg they need to know that so when somebody comes in and asks for that license they can go it’s off the table you’re not going there,” Bowling stated.
There was a motion made by Voiers to pass a first reading of the proposed ordinance for regulations in the city of Flemingsburg and a second by Council Member Meredith Story with a unanimous yes vote by remaining council.
Mayor Van Alexander stated, “I think it’s a wonderful job that he’s done on this. Something that’s coming and we want to be prepared for it.”
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