ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Miguel Cortes knows a lot about marijuana, and even more about how to grow it.

"I had always wanted to grow it, but I didn't want to deal with the hassle of being prosecuted so I never grew it," said Cortes.

He started growing marijuana at home in 2022 after the state Office of Cannabis Management approved regulations for growing medical marijuana at home.

"As soon as that happened, I was like, 'well if its legal'...I talked to my wife to make sure she’d be cool with doing it in the house, she said go for it and I got into gardening," he said.

Cortes doesn’t grow medical marijuana, but those regulations made him believe he was growing legally. 

"The way I understood it and if there has been changes made, I haven’t updated myself on the law yet," he said. "When they started, it was my understanding that you could have three juvenile plants and three adult plants."

He started two years ago by planting outside before moving his marijuana plants into his basement.

"That ones got roots real good, that ones got roots real good now, this ones crazy, this one’s got a little plant growing out of the side," Cortes said.

In October 2022, the Office of Cannabis Management regulated that "individuals 21 or older to grow a maximum of 6 plants per person at their home with a maximum of 12 plants total per household." But at the time, this was only intended for medical marijuana patients and caregivers.

"It’s just senseless why it should be an issue to anybody what I’m doing with a plant in my basement," Cortes said. 

Under the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, New Yorkers without medical marijuana cards had to wait for recreational home-growing regulations. OCM has until July 2025 to put those regulations in place.

"What the law did was it said, we’re going to allow home cultivation but let’s let the legal market stand up first so it actually triggered the timeline for allowing home cultivation off of the first date of adult use sales. So it said we’re gonna wait 18 months after the first date of adult use sales to promulgate regulations," said Michael McQueeny, partner of the Foley Hoag Cannabis Practice Group. 

But for Cortes, getting into growing marijuana has taught him about a lot more than just marijuana.

"Every time I grow something, all it makes me wanna do is say, what else do I have the space to grow?" he said.

Now he’s an avid gardener, growing everything from lettuce to asparagus. 

"I’ve planted two apple trees in my backyard, built raised garden beds, I grew Brussels sprouts for the first time this year," he said.

So now that he can officially start growing, he’s already learned valuable lessons.

"If you can grow weed, you can grow tomatoes, man," Cortes said.