I recently got into a fight with my landlord over my two cannabis plants in my Brooklyn building’s front garden. My landlord says I have to get rid of them, but I thought I was allowed to grow cannabis when the laws changed. What gives?
Many New Yorkers can grow their own marijuana in their apartments—but not in building common areas.
Last June, New Yorkers gained the right to grow up to three immature and three mature cannabis plants at home. But that new right came with several restrictions on where marijuana can be legally cultivated.
Cannabis plants cannot be grown in a building’s common areas, according to the state’s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) home cultivation guidelines. Instead, your plants must be stored in a “secure location” to prevent underage New Yorkers from stealing your flora.
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So, unless your front garden is yours alone—and walled off from your neighbors—your landlord can make you move your marijuana. (And you should do so right away, given that your current growing scheme violates the law.)
“The landlord can force the tenant to remove the cannabis plants from the front garden at the building because it is considered a common area,” said Jennifer Rozen, a tenant attorney at the Rozen Law Group. “So the tenant has no right to plant or store anything there.”
Go where you can grow
You can move your plants inside your apartment, or to another secure space that your fellow tenants cannot access. Just make sure your plants aren’t “plainly visible to public view,” according to the OCM.
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For example, if your apartment has a balcony, you could grow your cannabis there. Just make sure that your neighbors (and your landlord) can’t spot it from the street. If you decide to grow marijuana indoors, the OCM recommends limiting its smell with filters, odor neutralizing sprays, or essential oils.
As long as you’re following the OCM’s rules, your landlord cannot bar you from growing marijuana or evict you for doing so, unless you live in public housing or federally-subsidized housing. (For example, a tenants who receive a federal Section 8 housing voucher can be evicted for possessing marijuana, and New York City Housing Authority buildings ban both smoking and growing any cannabis, according to the city.)
So keep calm, bring your plants indoors, and please, don’t flaunt your flora.