On Wednesday medical cannabis in Kentucky became legal, with licensed practitioners being able to issue marijuana cards in December, but there are no dispensaries in the Commonwealth.

West Kentucky is slated to have four marijuana dispensaries, but when they will sell their first products remains unknown.  Attempts were made to contact the companies operating the dispensaries but were unsuccessful.

Linda Mays is a nurse practitioner who focuses on psychological issues and is one of three medical cannabis providers in Paducah.

She said she has certified about 20 patients so far, with certifications being able to be issued since December. 

“I’ve found people have a lot of interest in it,” Mays said. “The people who have contacted me said they have been waiting on it for a long time. It seems like it’s going to be life changing for a lot of people who have contacted me.”

She said even without dispensaries in Kentucky, patients can still travel to states where recreational marijuana is legal and bring those products back into the state.

“Our state has medical cannabis, meaning you will be able to access it if you have certain kinds of diagnoses,” Mays said. “People who have those diagnoses are able to travel to other areas to purchase products and bring them back.”

Even with her patients getting the ability to access THC products, she remains hopeful that Kentucky dispensaries will go live soon.

For Mays, she believes that having access to cannabis for some patients will change their lives.  She also urges the community to have some grace and understand that this is not meant for people to get high.

“People need to realize that this is one tool in the toolbox that can help you, whatever the qualifying disability that you have, and I would like for people to consider it as that, not just an opportunity for people to get high,” Mays said. 

Michi Amos works at the recently opened BLOC Dispensary in Metropolis and said most of the people she encounters are from Kentucky, several with debilitating diseases or people undergoing chemotherapy.

“When you come in it’s mostly older people who don’t want to do big pharma, they want to do medical marijuana,” Amos said. “It’s definitely a medicine… I’ve seen a lot of positive.

Although a Kentucky Medical Cannabis Card is not valid in Illinois, most of the dispensaries in Metropolis do give discounts to people with cannabis cards, even those from Kentucky.

BLOC offers a 30 percent discount every day except Monday, where the discount is 35 percent, for all licensed cannabis users.

Thrive offers a 20 percent discount for licensed cannabis users.

High Profile’s discount is unknown and did not return our request for comment.

If you meet the criteria to get a medical marijuana card, a list of licensed providers is available on the state’s medical cannabis website, just visit KYMedCan.KY.gov and look for the “Find a caregiver” section.