Some state lawmakers are raising concerns about Kentucky's medical cannabis program.

Medical marijuana became legal in the state back in 2025.

Since then, around 25,000 patients have received their medical cannabis cards, but that number is much lower than anticipated, with about 400,000 Kentuckians potentially being eligible.

Our Emily Prince was at today's committee meeting in Frankfort, where some Republican lawmakers questioned if the benefits of the program outweigh the costs.

I really think we're spending a lot of money here, and we've helped a lot of people that are not in this state.

And our job as this committee is to be the front line to protect Kentucky agriculture and Kentucky farmers.

And I don't think we've done that.

Some members of the Interim Joint Committee on Agriculture shared concerns today about the status of Kentucky's medical cannabis program.

They posed a problem with the process to become a licensed cannabis cultivator.

And the questioned if Kentucky farmers were really benefiting from the program.

Of the growers that have qualified.

How many of those, actually had, Kentucky farmers who had hemp license prior?

So we have two current licenses, that were, active in good standing hemp, license plates.

I love of I think there's 78, 80 businesses currently.

Were you reviewing farmers to see if they had passed hemp license, if they were really involved?

So we and once again, I'm trying to make sure that our Kentucky farmers, who are the individuals I trust in, have the most faith in of doing this in a way that we can trust and believe in.

I want to make sure our farmers were fairly treated in this process.

They were required to check a box on the application to tell us that they were hemp business that was in good standing, and then we reviewed those applications first.

That was our process.

That's exactly what the law told us to do.

And that's exactly what we did.

In order to be chosen as a licensed medical cannabis grower.

Businesses had to complete a rigorous application.

If their application was accepted, they were entered into a lottery system to determine who would actually receive a cultivating license.

Flynn said nearly 5000 businesses applied.

Only around 80 were awarded a license.

Many of the concerns I hear, from folks is, is that the licensing process itself, the lottery process was really, skewed, I guess you could say in a way that they felt like Kentuckians were kind of outnumbered in the process.

Flynn said the Office of Medical Cannabis was required by federal law to accept license applications from businesses out of state.

Another concern brought up at today's meeting was the cost of medical cannabis products to patients.

Flynn said right now, prices range from around 40 to $75, which must be paid out of pocket.

How can we quickly, address bringing these prices down because, or is there.

There is no quick fix to, to bring prices down.

Flynn said because the program is in its beginning phases, it may take a while for prices to decrease.

But he said costs have already come down in the last several months.

A south central Kentucky Republican said based on the lack of patients and the high cost, he'd like to consider shutting the program down.

In my personal opinion, we need to go back and look at maybe we just need to cane this and open it back up so they can go to other states and buy this, because I think we're wasting a whole lot of money.

An executive order that previously allowed Kentucky patients to bring in medical cannabis from other states expired on June 30th.

For Kentucky edition, I'm Emily Prince.

Thank you.

Emily.

During today's presentation, leaders from the Office of Medical Cannabis gave suggestions on how to make the drug more accessible to patients.

That included the removal of a notary on the application and allowing for telehealth visi