New York’s seriously ill medical marijuana patients will soon get some much-needed help … home delivery.

Vireo Health of New York, one of five marijuana-based companies licensed to grow the medicinal herb in New York, reported Wednesday that state health officials have given them the proverbial green light to start delivering cannabinoid-based products to New York’s MMJ patients within 90 days.

New York Deliveries

In addition to working towards allowing cannabinoid-based products to be legally consumed in New York hospitals, allowing B2B transactions between licensed cultivators and state-sanctioned dispensaries, and removing the state’s restrictive brand cap, New York is letting patients living in NYC, Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island access home delivery through Vireo.

Cultivated for the benefit of New York’s reclusive and housebound patients, state health officials clarified their intentions, according to the New York Daily News.

“This is another step in the department’s implementation of the recommendations in the two-year report on New York’s medical marijuana program, in recognition of the fact that, in many cases, patients with serious health conditions cannot leave their homes and have difficulty accessing medical marijuana products.”

Initially agreeing on the bill to establish a comprehensive medical marijuana program almost three years ago, Gov. Cuomo made New York America’s 23rd medical marijuana state in June 2014.

Qualifying Conditions

Per the New York State website, individuals may qualify for the state’s Medical Marijuana Program if:

You have been diagnosed with a specific severe, debilitating or life-threatening condition that is accompanied by an associated or complicating condition. By law, those conditions are: cancer, HIV infection or AIDS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury with spasticity, epilepsy, inflammatory bowel disease, neuropathy, and Huntington’s disease. The associated or complicating conditions are cachexia or wasting syndrome, severe or chronic pain, severe nausea, seizures, or severe or persistent muscle spasms.

A timid step in the right direction, New York’s patients are currently only allowed to consume the plant’s medicinal cannabinoids via tinctures, capsules, and vaporizers.

In other words folks: no bong rips, blunts, and absolutely no dabs.

Although New York’s policy is far from ideal, it unequivocally represents progress and a changing of the times. While restricted to non-smokable forms only, New York’s Medical Marijuana Program has improved the overall quality of life for those in the Empire State.

Update: I mistakenly stated edibles rather than capsules were an acceptable form of MMJ medicine in New York State – I apologize.