Assembly Bill 6357
Approved: June 19, 2014 by Assembly, 117-13; June 20, 2014 by Senate, 49-10
Signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo on July 5, 2014
Effective: Upon Governor’s signature

The Department of Health had 18 months to establish regulations and register dispensing organizations. Marijuana will be taxed at 7%, to be paid by the dispensary. The law automatically expires after seven years.

Approved Conditions: “You are potentially eligible for medical marijuana if you have been diagnosed with a specific severe, debilitating or life threatening condition that is accompanied by an associated or complicating condition. By law, those conditions are: cancer, HIV infection or AIDS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury with spasticity, epilepsy, inflammatory bowel disease, neuropathy, and Huntington’s disease. The associated or complicating conditions are cachexia or wasting syndrome, severe or chronic pain, severe nausea, seizures, or severe or persistent muscle spasms.”

Physicians must complete a four-hour New York State Department of Health (Department)-approved course and register with the Department to certify patients.

Possession/Cultivation: 30-day supply

Smoking is not a method approved by the bill.

Update:

On Nov. 11, 2015 Gov. Cuomo signed a bill to allow emergency access to medical marijuana, requiring state health officials to establish an expedited certification process for seriously ill patients and to register marijuana producers “as expeditiously as practicable.”

On Jan. 7, 2016, the medical marijuana program officially launched with eight dispensaries statewide.