If you followed the local news in July 2014, you would've seen the photo op: a button-cute 10-year-old girl blushing happily next to Governor Andrew Cuomo as he signed legislation that would bring medical marijuana to the Empire State. That was Amanda Houser, of Suffern, who seems every bit of a normal preteen, if not for the seizures that she endures daily from Dravet syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy. Her family hopes that medical marijuana—now legal in our state, though not available until at least early next year—will help reduce the number of seizures that Amanda must hurdle during her life of school and play and Teen Beach movies. It's been over a year since that moment in the spotlight with Cuomo, and her condition has spiraled down.

The New York State Department of Health continues to say medical marijuana will be available to patients by this coming January, but families and advocates aren't so sure.

Christine Emerson has been fighting for the medicine for her daughter Julia.

"It takes 3 months to grow and harvest the plants," Emerson said. "So that puts us really toward the end of the year, and we're not even talking about producing the medicine and having it tested."

After multiple failed attempts, the health department finally agreed to answer 2 On Your Side's questions about the program, although only by email.

WILL THE MEDICINE BE READY?

Jane co-founder Jeff Foster speaks with the media at the Cannabis Expo & Business Conference in June at the Javits Center in Manhattan.

When it arrives in New York, the medical marijuana industry will be an all-cash business. 

New York’s five companies licensed to grow and sell medical marijuana under the Compassionate Care Act must grapple with the security, safety, and legal challenges of dealing in cash because they can't keep it in banks like other businesses.

Bob Lemmo, the first news editor of marijuana-enthusiast and lifestyle media brand High Times, died in hospice Aug. 9 at age 64.

In 1975, when High Times was in its first year of publication and on a meteoric growth track, Lemmo was brought in to help create a news section entirely focused on marijuana, hashish and other recreational drugs. Prior to that, he had been editor of underground newspapers in New York and Arizona.

Bronx elected officials, community leaders and health officials are looking to finally ‘snub out’ synthetic marijuana sales.

At a Wednesday, August 12 press conference at Jacobi Hospital’s Trauma Center, Senator Jeff Klein, Assemblyman Mark Gjonaj, Director of Behavioral Health Services at North Bronx Healthcare Network Dr. Maryann Popiel, Director of the Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program at Jacobi Hospital Dr. Benjamin Raatjes, community leaders and health officials demanded a crackdown on synthetic marijuana sales.

It turns out the so-called “green rush” that was expected in the wake of New York's legalization of medical marijuana may not be much of a rush after all.

Clinical trials have begun to see if cannabis-infused chewing gum could be used to relieve pain and spasticity in multiple sclerosis patients.

A number of multiple sclerosis sufferers have turned to marijuana to ease the pain and symptoms of the debilitating disease.

A New York-based biotech company is hoping that some relief from the pain and spasticity of MS is just a stick of cannabis gum away.

Marijuana’s effects can vary from person to person, and scientists are not quite sure what to make of the common distinction users and growers make between cannabis sativa and cannabis indica.

When the details of New York’s medical marijuana program were announced by the state Health Department they were met with hesitation. Dispensary locations, the scope of the program and the delivery methods were among the chief concerns as the rules were made public.

“The distribution of dispensaries around the state remains a major concern. Given the current proposed sites, there are huge areas of the state where patients will have to travel enormous distances to get medicine,” Julie Netherland, deputy state director at the Drug Policy Alliance, said when the state announced the five chosen medical marijuana producers in New York. “This is especially problematic given that many medical marijuana patients are sick and disabled and low income.”

It's capable of causing serious harm to its users and those around them.