Where in the U.S. Can You Grow Medicinal Cannabis at Home?
Each state in the U.S. has its own laws on how it regulates Cannabis. This includes sales, distribution, industrial cultivation and whether you are allowed to grow cannabis at home for personal use or not.
Growing cannabis for medicinal purposes is allowed in every state that has fully legalized cannabis. Expectedly, homegrowing for recreational purposes has more restrictions than growing for medicinal use. This is because people have become more aware of the medicinal value of cannabis and, thus more accepting of the idea that you can use it as medicine.
States that allow you to grow cannabis indoors for medicinal or recreational use:
- Alaska
- California
- Colorado
- Maine
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Nevada
- Oregon
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
From the list above, Oregon, California, and Washington were among the first that eased marijuana laws and emerged early on as national leaders in growing marijuana plants.
States that allow homegrowing cannabis but only for medicinal purposes:
- Arizona
- Hawaii
- Illinois
- Maryland
- Minnesota (soon)
- Missouri
- Montana
- New Hampshire
- New Mexico
- Oklahoma
- Rhode Island
- South Dakota
- Utah
It is important to note that these states generally have a lot of regulations involved when growing at home. A lot of these states mandate the number of plants that can be grown for patients or their caregivers. The laws can also be subject to extra local regulations.
States where medicinal cannabis is legal, but homegrowing is prohibited:
- Arkansas
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Iowa
- Louisiana
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Pennsylvania
- Ohio
- Utah
- West Virginia
In the last list, access to medicinal cannabis in these states is much stricter. Growing at home is not allowed for any reason, and patients are usually required to pick up their medicines from dispensaries.
In a nutshell, all states have different rules for the homegrowing of cannabis for recreational and/or medicinal use, plus there are also states where medicinal use of cannabis is legal but you cannot grow it at home. Since there are a lot of regulations involved in homegrowing for personal medicinal use, it's good to check all local and state laws to determine how you can conduct such a project, and to figure out other details, like how many plants are allowed to be homegrown, how much marijuana ready to use can you have at any given time, how it should be stored, etc. Everybody who grows cannabis at home, regardless if it's for medicinal or recreational use, needs to be 21 years of age in any state of the U.S.
S
Stephen Andrews
