-
How Medical Marijuana Changed My Life (Sort Of)
More than twenty years after I first attempted to quell a migraine headache with a bong hit, I have become a card-carrying medical-marijuana user. Well, not exactly. This is New York State. You can’t get actual marijuana, only extracts. This makes it impossible to access what could be my best medical option, and significantly increases […]
-
Father of New York’s Medical Marijuana Program Wants More Companies Licensed to Grow and Sell
New York’s medical marijuana law, known as the Compassionate Care Act, launched just last month but has been the target of harsh criticism since Governor Andrew Cuomo signed it in July of 2014. Now Albany’s biggest advocate for legal medical marijuana, Manhattan assemblyman Richard Gottfried, has proposed legislation to improve the program. Gottfried, who originally […]
-
New York’s Medical Marijuana Program Off to a Slow Start; Critics Say Patients Are the Ones Suffering
It took eighteen months from the moment Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the bill that created the state’s first medical marijuana program until it finally launched on January 7. During that time there’s been plenty of hype, hand-wringing, and — at least among lawmakers trying to improve the bill — haggling. And yet the outcome remains […]
-
New York’s Medical Marijuana Program Launches, but Where Are All the Patients?
Medical marijuana is finally here — sort of. Eight out of the state’s twenty dispensaries are now open for business, but patients are hardly beating down the front door. Four dispensaries are planned for New York City, though currently Columbia Care‘s Union Square location is the only facility open for business in Manhattan, and that location is […]
-
New York Medical Marijuana Company Has Its Weed Certified Kosher
Kosher kush is not just the name of an award-winning Cannabis indica strain. Starting this month, as dispensaries open their doors for business across New York, it’s also a caliber of medical marijuana that will be available from one of the state’s five licensed growers. Vireo Health of New York, one of the five organizations licensed to […]
-
Here Are the Highlights of New York’s Year in Weed
As the year comes to a close, and as we look ahead to the fast-approaching launch of New York’s medical marijuana program, the Village Voice is looking back on some of the year’s most important developments in weed throughout the city and state. With several milestones having propelled the cannabis movement, public opinion has begun […]
-
New York’s Medical Marijuana Companies ‘Firing on All Cylinders,’ Ready for January Launch
It’s been nearly eighteen months since Governor Cuomo signed legislation to legalize medical marijuana, and with only a few weeks left before the Compassionate Care Act is due to take effect, the five companies licensed to grow and sell cannabis are rushing to meet the deadline. The legislation, which has been derided as too restrictive, […]
-
Will New York’s Doctors Be Qualified to Recommend Medical Marijuana Come January?
New York’s medical marijuana program is due to launch next month, but the question of when all qualifying patients — roughly 500,000, or one in forty residents across the state — will be able to purchase cannabis still has advocates concerned. While the patients themselves are ready, most doctors, it turns out, are not. The […]
-
How Much Do You Know About Weed in New York? Here’s a Glossary.
With New York’s medical marijuana program due to take effect this January and with recreational weed looming on the horizon (maybe), everyone’s talking about weed. Below is a list of important terms, names, companies, and political developments we thought you should know to be in on the conversation. Bloomfield Industries Inc.: One of the five companies […]
-
New York Medical Marijuana Activist Delivers 100K Signatures Asking Obama to Ax DEA Chief
When acting U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration chief Chuck Rosenberg got himself into hot water earlier this month for calling medical marijuana “a joke,” Tom Angell got angry. The Brooklyn resident and founder of Marijuana Majority, a marijuana law reform advocacy group, says medical cannabis has been extremely important to his family and was put off by […]