FRANKFORT, Ky. — Kentucky’s new medical marijuana program is being audited after months of concern and WHAS11’s own reporting, which found some business owners exploited a loophole to get a cannabis business license.

State Auditor Allison Ball announced Thursday her office would lead the investigation into the Office of Medical Cannabis (OMC), examining both the business license application and award processes, after months of concern.

WHAS11’s Alexandra Goldberg traveled to Frankfort to ask Gov. Andy Beshear about if the OMC will hold up against the state investigation, however Beshear’s office said he was unavailable for an interview Friday.

Michael Adair, a hemp farmer with Kentucky Farmed, has long questioned the lottery system’s fairness.

“The Kentucky people have spent millions and millions and millions of dollars, and deserve answers,” Adair said.

He applied for a cultivator’s license, but was not successful in the lottery held on Dec. 16, 2024.

“These things have been brought up and they just continue to act like everything is above board, even though you openly have people admitting to gaming the system,” he said.

In late March, WHAS11 questioned the governor about the state’s licensing process and concerns about “app-stacking.”

The app-stacking regulation was initially put in place to make sure investors can’t stack their odds in the lottery process, but some business owners still found a way to increase their odds of getting a license.

Kentuckians in the local hemp business like Adair and 502Hemp’s Dee Dee Taylor want the state investigation to seek answers about why didn’t they know their lottery numbers, and if winners were in violation of app-stacking.

“One thousand percent it was done on live TV,” Adair said. “But, 100% no one who applied knew their lottery number.”

“A lot of us feel like we got slapped in the face by allowing so many applications to be filed and then saying that it’s okay that they stacked the deck, that they had the same business owners create multiple businesses,” Taylor added.

Beshear’s office said the process was executed transparently on live television. 

“To date, no one has filed a legal claim challenging Kentucky’s medical cannabis laws or the Office of Medical Cannabis’ regulations. The individuals who have come forward to express “concerns” went through the full process and did not complain until after not being selected in the lottery,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

“Why would you not expect people who spent thousands of dollars of their hard earned money on a lottery ticket and not have questions?” Adair said.

The Commonwealth brought in a huge sum of money from just the license applications alone, more than $27 million.