Cannabis consumers in New York City typically rely on the city's robust underground network of discreet bike messengers and shady dudes in the park to procure their (illegal) pot, but for a few medical marijuana patients who qualify, things will get much easier, sort of.
Starting Thursday, Columbia Care, located on 14th street just outside Union Square, will become Manhattan's first medical marijuana dispensary. And while that sounds well and fancy for pot lovers in need of their medicine, the dispensary won't even have any weed.
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Under the Compassionate Care Act, which Governor Andrew Cuomo signed in July, patients will be allowed to purchase extracts, tinctures, oils and edibles. So no actual flower, bud, trees or green will actually be sold. And before you run to your doctor to get a prescription for your headaches, you should just move to California now because New York is not that kind of medical marijuana state.
Patients who qualify for medical marijuana in New York must have a "severe debilitating or life-threatening condition." And although medical marijuana is legal in some form in 23 different states and D.C., the Empire State is clearly one of the strictest in terms of qualifying patients and product availability.
Given the stigma associated with smoking, it was actually the only method of consumption and was "specifically excluded from ‘certified medical use’ in the statute." Which means New York is being extremely cautious in its introduction to the wide world of weed, and has no intention of any cannabis products getting into the wrong hands. The only other medical state to enforce this type of restriction is Minnesota.
While smoking marijuana flower is the most common ways to consume cannabis, concentrates and edibles have become extremely popular since states like Colorado and Washington have legalized the plant for recreational use.
Additionally, the state is also forbidding the cannabis to be consumed in public, and it must be kept in its original package, both of which are unsurprising. And following the gold standard of edible doses established by Colorado in 2014, no single dose ingestible can exceed 10 mg of THC.
For sick patients in pain, the stricter laws are a welcomed addition to the outlaw that came before it. For those who don't qualify or anyone that actually wants to smoke weed -- business as usual.