Medical marijuana patients in New York state will soon be able to do something for the first time in the five-year history of the program: purchase smokable marijuana.
The state’s newly formed regulatory board approved the sale of marijuana flower on Tuesday, broadening the offerings of a medicinal pot marketplace that had only featured the likes of vaping products and oils.
It was the first meeting for the so-called Cannabis Control Board, which is comprised of five board members and is “charged with implementing the Marihuana Regulation & Taxation Act and advancing the cannabis industry in New York State.”
The meeting came two weeks after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul made her final two appointments to the panel.
The Cannabis Control Board operates under the Office of Cannabis Management, which was created by the law passed earlier this year that legalized recreational pot use in the state of New York.
As defined under the law, the Office of Cannabis Management is “a first in the nation comprehensive regulatory structure to oversee the licensure, cultivation, production, distribution, sale and taxation of medical, adult-use and cannabinoid hemp within New York State.”
New York Makes a Change
But while recreational marijuana sales are still roughly 18 months away from taking effect in the Empire State, Democrats in Albany have pushed the new regulatory agency to forge ahead with changes to the medical marijuana program, which officially launched in 2016.
Hochul, too, has called for greater urgency in rolling out the new marijuana reforms in the state.
“New York’s cannabis industry has stalled for far too long,” Hochul said in announcing her appointments to the