Rebekah F. Ward reports in the Times Union that New Yorkers have 60 days to comment on new rules that would allow medical cannabis patients to grow their own plants. Medical cannabis has been legal in New York for seven years, and recreational cannabis use has been legal since April 1 this year. When they legislature legalized recreational cannabis, they also loosened rules for medical users. Currently, New York's 150,695 medical cannabis patients must purchase the drug from 10 state-licensed suppliers. “The draft regulations clearly lay out a program that will allow limited home cultivation in a safe manner, preventing diversion and abuse and allowing patients and caregivers who may be far from existing dispensaries the ability to manage their use,” State Senator Diane Savino said. The public can now comment on the proposal to allow up to three mature and three immature plants per patient. The Cannabis Control Board, announcing the public comment, did not explain how the public could comment. The Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act that passed this spring allowed limited home cultivation of medical cannabis as soon as the Office of Cannabis Management issues regulations governing it. The law says that was supposed to happen, “no later than six months after the effective date” of the law, which passed Oct. 1. Read more about this story in the Times Union. Also The New York Post reported on Oct. 19 that Albany’s labor department issued a new guidance banning employers from testing employees for cannabis unless the worker seems visibly impaired on the job. Cannabis will be treated in the same way that alcohol is, and employers can ban workers from possessing cannabis on the job site.