New York enacts the Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA), legalizing adult-use cannabis and public consumption

On March 31, 2021—one day after the New York State Senate voted 40–23 and the State Assembly voted 100–49 to approve S.854A / A.1248A—Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA) into law, making New York the 15th state to legalize adult-use cannabis.

What the MRTA changed immediately on March 31, 2021

• Personal possession: Adults 21 and older could immediately possess up to 3 ounces (85 grams) of cannabis flower and up to 24 grams of concentrated cannabis in public, plus store up to 5 pounds of cannabis in a locked container at home.
• Smoking where tobacco is allowed: Unlike almost every other state, New York allowed adults to smoke cannabis in outdoor public spaces wherever smoking tobacco is permitted under the Clean Indoor Air Act (excluding motor vehicles, school grounds, boardwalks, and parks where local rules prohibit smoking).
• Automatic expungement & community reinvestment: The law automatically expunged hundreds of thousands of past New York cannabis convictions for conduct made legal by the MRTA and directed 40% of net state cannabis tax revenue to the Community Grants Reinvestment Fund.

Retail rollout and home cultivation

New York’s first legal adult-use dispensary—operated by the nonprofit Housing Works in Manhattan under the state’s Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) program—opened on December 29, 2022. Following the Office of Cannabis Management’s adoption of final home-cultivation regulations, adult-use home growing of up to 3 mature and 3 immature plants per adult (capped at 6 mature and 6 immature plants per household) took effect across New York in June 2024.

Photo: Adobe Stock. Contextual stock: cannabis dispensary interior in New York City; capture date unspecified, not a photograph of the 2021 signing.