Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed New York’s Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act into law, but that doesn’t mean you can legally run right out and buy an ounce of marijuana.
What the law does do immediately is to decriminalize possession of up to three ounces of marijuana. But it’s still illegal to buy it on the street, pending the creation of the entire infrastructure of a legal New York marijuana industry. Lawmakers and attorneys expect that to take from a year to 18 months.
The Office of Cannabis Management, equivalent to the State Liquor Authority, has to be set up and staffed. the OCM needs to write regulations, licensing requirements and create the mechanism for people to apply for permits. Local governments need to decide if they want to allow marijuana dispensaries in their jurisdictions, and what sort of zoning requirements they should have.