As the rollout for medical marijuana licenses by the state continues, the City of Bowling Green is holding off on taking any action, something City Attorney Hillary Hightower said is due to the city trying to figure “what’s best for the community” with regard to enforcement and management.

“What’s best for other jurisdictions doesn’t necessarily mean that’s best for Warren County,” Hightower said.

Under Kentucky’s medical cannabis laws, if a municipality does not “opt out” of allowing sales within its jurisdiction, it will automatically “opt in” at the start of the new year. Once it kicks in on Jan. 1, medical marijuana will be available to those suffering from chronic illness including cancer, multiple sclerosis, PTSD and any illness proven to be alleviated by marijuana.

The state held a lottery on Nov. 25 where the first round of licenses were dispersed for dispensary locations.

Four facilities in southcentral Kentucky were granted licenses, according to a list of selectees from the Kentucky Office of Medical Cannabis. Bowling Green will have three — PROMO PULSE, LLC, FLOWER RADAR, LLC and AR-MO-KY-MS, LLC. The only other dispensary approved in the region, Zeus Agoraios, LLC, will be in Franklin.

Several municipalities placed an item on the November ballot where voters could decide on allowing medical marijuana sales.

According to a report from Louisville Public Media, each of the 106 city and county governments that held ballot initiatives voted in favor of it. The City of Franklin saw 4,574 “yes” votes to 1,801 “no” votes, or almost 72%, according to LPM.

However, a vote for medical marijuana was not included on the City of Bowling Green’s ballot. Hightower said this was because both the city and the county were having ongoing conversations about the issue.

“At the time that we were just still studying what the rollout was going to look like, what the regulations were going to look like,” she said. “While all that research was going on when it was on the ballot, that just demonstrated further to us what people believe.”

Some action has been taken by local government since medical marijuana was signed into law. The City County Planning Commission in March approved changes to local zoning regulations in advance of the rollout.

Under the new regulations, sales of medical marijuana can only be done in areas zoned for “highway business.” Dispensaries cannot be located near areas zoned residential or agricultural and they must be located at least 1,000 feet away from a college, school or day care center.

“I don’t think it’s a bad idea to do a wait and see approach and let some other counties and cities do it, and then maybe learn from what they did well and they did wrong,” Hightower said.