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PROVIDENCE, Ky. — Gov. Andy Beshear joined Hopkins County leaders on Tuesday for the ribbon-cutting at Slaughter Branch LLC, the first Tier 1 medical cannabis cultivator to open in western Kentucky.
The state said added supply from new facilities such as Slaughter Branch will help lower prices.
The new facility at 12631 Nebo Road in Providence is owned by Chester Thomas, a former coal miner who once ran mines on the same property. Thomas emphasized the project’s local roots from the start.
“Yeah, we’re going to help a lot of people,” Thomas said. “We spent a lot of money, and most, sixty-plus percent, of the funds that we spent here were spent here in western Kentucky.”
Carson Thomas, the owner’s nephew and special projects manager, gave tours of the operation immediately after the ribbon-cutting. Visitors were required to wear full personal protective equipment to protect the sterile growing environment.
“We’re trying to grow the best quality cannabis in the state of Kentucky. Bar none,” Carson Thomas said. “That’s the goal. We want to provide the cleanest and best product to help Kentuckians who need it.”
The Tier 1 cultivator is the smallest license category, limited to 2,500 square feet of canopy. The company is pursuing a craft-style approach that prioritizes quality over mass production. The first harvest is expected within eight or nine days, with product heading to dispensaries in mid-to-late June after testing.
Beshear, who signed medical cannabis into law in 2023, used the event to highlight the program’s momentum and patient impact.
“As attorney general, I saw the devastation of opioids and what it did to this Commonwealth,” Beshear said. “I saw a veteran who was on 20 different prescription painkillers, suicidal, couldn’t hold a job. Yet when he secured medical cannabis, he rebuilt his relationship with his family, held down a job, and was down to one prescription medication.”
According to Beshear, almost 21,000 Kentuckians hold medical cannabis cards. The state has nine licensed cultivators operating, with more expected in the coming months.
“Supply is coming online. When the first crop comes out of here, you will see prices decrease because there is one more cultivator on the market,” Beshear said. “We still don’t have the full amount of product needed to meet the demand. And because we don’t have enough, the prices are still a little too high in some places. ”
Beshear described Kentucky’s rollout as one of the fastest in the nation and the only one structured to avoid successful court challenges. Hopkins County Fiscal Court Representative Billy Parrish said the project reflects a shift in local attitudes.
“Anything that’s grown naturally, to me, would be better put in your body than something that might be synthetic to relieve pain,” Parrish said.
The ceremony came one day after Beshear opened two other cultivators elsewhere in the state on April 20.