KY clears a large medical marijuana grower to operate in Jessamine County
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- VS Kentucky Ops opened a tier 2 medical marijuana cultivation facility in Nicholasville.
- State approved 80 business licenses; 48 dispensary permits followed 2024 lotteries.
- Officials cite patient access and job creation as priorities amid audit of lottery process
A Lexington-area medical marijuana cultivator — one that holds a tier 2 license good for up to 10,000 square feet of growing space — is open for business.
VS Kentucky Ops, based in Nicholasville, has received approval from state officials to commence operations. According to a news release Friday, it plans to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday, Dec. 15 in Nicholasville at 900 John C. Watts Drive.
“It’s a proud day to see these facilities come online, and even more gratifying to know they will bring new jobs and opportunities to Kentuckians,” Gov. Andy Beshear said in the release. “Most importantly, they will help ensure that patients across our state have safe, reliable access to the medical cannabis products they need.”
VS Kentucky Ops will bring Missouri-based marijuana brands such as Vivid and Buoyant Bob to Kentucky.
Day-to-day operations at the facility will be handled by Trilux KY Management, Boston Dickerson, director and CEO of the company, told the Herald-Leader in a phone call Friday afternoon. The newly formed company specializes in offering operational and advisory services for licensed businesses in Kentucky’s medical marijuana program, Dickerson said.
“It is a Kentucky based company,” Dickerson said.
According to Dickerson’s LinkedIn account, he’s the founder and CEO of Show-Me Organics, a company “that is committed to bringing world-class cannabis products to the Show-Me state through its four brands: Vivid, Missouri’s Own Edibles, Buoyant Bob and Blue Sage Dispensaries.”
VS Kentucky Ops is scaling up operations with plans to be fully functional by spring.
“When we’re fully functional in Q2 of next year, we should have right around 50 jobs brought to Jessamine County through this partnership,” Dickerson said. “We anticipate our first harvest to be around the first part of February, with that product coming to market at the end of February.”
As it stands, the cultivator has about 2,000 square feet of growing canopy online now, Dickerson said. It has plans to grow to 10,000 square feet, as allowed by its tier 2 cultivator license. The building itself is 80,000 square feet. With Kentucky’s registered medical marijuana patients numbering about 20,000 people, Dickerson said VS Kentucky Ops is positioned to meet that demand and scale up operations as more patients join the market next year.
“I believe we will be able to meet the demand” for medical cannabis in Kentucky, Dickerson said.
The Nicholasville business isn’t the first medical marijuana cultivator to open in Kentucky. That honor goes to the Graves County-based Armory Kentucky LLC, which began operations in July. Closer to Lexington, the tier 1 cultivator Farmtucky, based in Jessamine County, has been operating since August. It’s licensed for up to 2,500 square feet of growing space.
As the bedrock of Kentucky’s medical marijuana program, cultivators grow the product that eventually winds up on dispensary shelves. Tier 1, 2 and 3 cultivator licenses enable growing operations of up to 2,500, 10,000 and 25,000 square feet, respectively.
Kentucky has awarded two tier 3 cultivator licenses to businesses in Central Kentucky. The largest tier 4 licenses for up to 50,000 square feet of growing space, weren’t awarded in the initial licensing round.
Kentucky officially launched its medical marijuana program in January when it began taking cardholder applications from eligible patients through an online portal.
State data shows there’s a demand for it. At least 23,757 individuals have obtained electronic certification to access medical marijuana, Beshear said earlier this month. Top conditions include cancer, chronic nausea and chronic pain.
Still, the launch of the program has faced logistical hurdles.
Under Kentucky’s medical marijuana law, cultivation operations must take place in secure, indoor facilities. Additionally, the lucrative and limited business licenses have been trading hands and settling final locations.
All told, the state has granted 80 business licenses, including 48 for dispensaries, the retail front of the state’s cannabis operations. Those licenses were distributed by a series of state-run lotteries in late 2024. The lottery process has since come under scrutiny with questions raised over fairness and application stacking by out-of-state companies with deep pockets.
In April, Kentucky’s Auditor announced a probe into the process for awarding business licenses.
For his part, Beshear and state officials have consistently defended the process as the fairest approach and a way to avert lawsuits over application scoring that would trip up the program’s launch for years, leaving patients waiting even longer.
“Our priority is ensuring Kentuckians suffering with serious medical conditions, like cancer, PTSD, MS and others can now have access to safe, medical cannabis,” Beshear said during a Dec. 11 news conference.