New York’s medical marijuana program kicks off Jan. 6, with five companies authorized to grow for medicinal purposes for the state one year after Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the Compassionate Care Act in 2014.
Potential patients for the program start the application process online, but must be certified for use through a physician registered through the state after a training course. Patients who are younger than 18 must apply through a proxy. The online registration program launched last month.
The medical program includes “severe, debilitating or life-threatening conditions” like cancer, Parkinson’s disease or multiple sclerosis according to the website.
The Compassionate Care Act website lists other conditions such as Alzheimer’s and post-traumatic stress disorder as under consideration by Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker for later inclusion.
We reported on the five companies selected to sell medical marijuana out of 43 applicants within the state: Bloomfield Industries Inc.; Columbia Care NY LLC; Vireo Health of New York; Etain LLC; and PharmaCann LLC. Of the five, Vireo’s products will be the first cannabis products certified as kosher by the Orthodox Union and stamped with the “OU” according to their press release.
Columbia Care announced that its Union Square dispensary will be open Jan. 7, according to the Daily News. Other dispensaries throughout New York City will open later in the month.
Twenty dispensaries will eventually open across the state, though the roll-out will be gradual, according to an Inquirer article, and the medical cannabis will not be available to smoke, but in pill, oil or drop form.
