CITY OF TONAWANDA, N.Y. (WKBW) — There's another step forward in legalizing cannabis in New York State. You can now grow marijuana at home.
The state's Office of Register posted the official rules and regulations on Wednesday, which means this now goes into effect and personal home cultivation of marijuana is legal.
Here are the rules:
- If you are 21 and older you can now cultivate cannabis at home
- Each adult can grow up to six plants at home — three mature and three immature plants
- The limit per household will be 12 plants total — six of each
- It is illegal to sell, trade or barter with homegrown cannabis
- You can grow in any residential spaces
- Landlords can refuse to lease space to or penalize a tenant if they risk losing any federal benefits
7 News' Kristen Mirand visited Sativa Remedy on Main Street in the City of Tonawanda. CEO and co-founder Nhi Kha shared what you need to know before you grow.
Kha: Our mission has always been to provide affordable, clean, vetted and tested hemp CBD products so that our community really has access to the wonderful wellness benefits that come from the plant.
Mirand: How are you guys feeling about that step that the state took today and said, 'Hey, it is finally legal to do this?'
Kha: I think it's really been a lot of momentum and excitement. We believe that if you can cultivate your own tomatoes at home, you should also be able to cultivate your cannabis at home.
Mirand: So if I want to grow at home — what's the first step I need to know?
Kha: I think one of the first things to understand is what kind of environment are we going to put our plants in. We want our plants to thrive to survive, to grow and to do that Sativa Remedy we believe in organic growing.
Kha: So this is our soil mix here and this we are using a plastic pot, so it's less rigid. It gives the soil here a lot of room to soak up water so that nutrients in the plant. Generally, we will note that it can take anywhere from 80 days with maybe an autoflower plant to anywhere from 120, 150 days.
Mirand: And at the end of the day when you're growing you want it to look like this?
Kha: Yes, yes. You want it to grow healthy. You want it to grow strong. These are fake pot plants, but this is what your beautiful plant should look like.
Mirand: Can you talk about removing that stigma when it comes to marijuana because if somebody hears, 'Oh, you can start growing marijuana at home,' they're gonna say, 'Oh, it's just for people to smoke it.' But it's not that it's more than that.
Kha: Yeah I think for us, when it comes to hemp marijuana it really is rooted in wellness...This plant comes with so many benefits.
Mirand: And that's what we learned in the cultivation kitchen!
Kha: Yes, thank you for coming out today and for learning with us. And we really hope to be a source for our community, especially when it comes to education when it comes to helping them understand what they need to be able to go on their own personal cultivation journey.
