Patients

Overview

There are two steps to becoming a certified patient for medical cannabis.

Get certified. Contact your health care provider to see if medical cannabis may help. Your health care provider will give you a certification if medical cannabis is appropriate for your condition. Health care providers must meet certain requirements to certify patients. Read the requirements for more information.
Purchase medical cannabis. Visit a registered organization's medical cannabis dispensing facility with your printed patient certification (or display it on your smart device) and a government issued photo ID to purchase product.

Qualifying Conditions

You may be eligible for the use of medical cannabis if deemed clinically appropriate by your certifying health care provider.

Please talk to your practitioner about whether medical cannabis may help you.

Find a Certifying Health Care Provider

Talk to your health care provider about whether medical cannabis may help you.

Find a health care provider

Registry ID

On March 20, 2023, the Office made changes to Medical Cannabis Data Management System (MCDMS), allowing for patients to be automatically registered when they are certified. Patient Certifications now contain their registry ID. Plastic registry ID cards are no longer being produced.

Please see important information below:

Patients who were certified on or after March 20, 2023, and whose Registry ID appears in the certification, must notify their certifying practitioner of any change in their name or address within (10) business days of such change. A new certification and registry ID will be issued to reflect changes.

Patients who were certified before March 20, 2023 and designated caregivers must notify the Medical Cannabis Program of any change in their name, or address, within ten (10) business days of such change. In some instances (but not all) this may generate a new Registry ID.

Click on the link below for information on when to update or request a new Registry ID.

Patient and Caregiver Registry ID guide

What to bring to the medical cannabis dispensary.

Download

Update or Replace a Registry ID

Guide for updating or replacing a registry ID for those in the medical cannabis program.

Download

Add a Caregiver

A patient may designate up to five (5) caregivers to assist in purchasing and/or administering their medical cannabis products for them. Caregivers may be added any time after the patient is auto-registered.

Adding a Caregiver

How to designate a caregiver for the Medical Cannabis Program.

Download

Purchase Product

Certified patients or their designated caregivers who are registered with the Medical Cannabis Program can purchase medical cannabis products from a registered organization's dispensing facility in New York State.

Patients

Patients who were certified before March 20, 2023 must bring their registry ID card and certification to a registered organization’s dispensary in order to purchase medical cannabis products, plants or seeds.

Patients who were certified on or after March 20, 2023 must bring their patient certification (which includes registry ID barcode) and a government issued photo ID to a registered organization's dispensary in order to purchase medical cannabis products, plants or seeds.

Patients whose certification number begins with PC3 can download or display their certification by linking their my.ny.gov account to their MCDMS registration.

Designated Caregivers

Designated caregivers who registered with the Medical Cannabis program before March 20, 2023 obtaining medical cannabis on behalf of their patients must bring their caregiver registry identification card and their patients' certification to the dispensary. 

Designated caregivers who registered with the Medical Cannabis program on or after March 20, 2023 purchasing medical cannabis on behalf of their patients must bring their caregiver registry ID, their patients' certification, and a government issued photo ID to the dispensary. 

Caregivers who registered on or after March 20, 2023 can download or display their registry ID document by linking their my.ny.gov account to their MCDMS registration.

Certified patients and designated caregivers must always carry their certification and registry ID whenever they possess approved medical Cannabis products, or cannabis plants or seeds for home cultivation.

Not all dispensing facilities sell the same types of medical cannabis products or cannabis plants or seeds for home cultivation. Please contact the registered organization directly to learn more about the products they have available.

Medical cannabis products as well as cannabis plants and seeds for home cultivation may not be transported outside of New York State.

REGISTERED ORGANIZATIONS & DISPENSING FACILITIES

Medical Home Cultivation

Effective October 5, 2022, certified patients and designated caregivers twenty-one years of age or older who are registered with the Medical Cannabis Program may cultivate cannabis at home for a certified patients’ personal use. For more information on home cultivation of medical cannabis, click on the links below.