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March 31st was a day of celebration for cannabis advocates as they watched New York Governor Andrew Cuomo sign the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, which legalized marijuana across the state of New York for people 21 and up. The Empire State became the 15th U.S. state to do so. Thus begins a new era of legalized cannabis.

However, many New Yorkers are still a little hazy on which laws have changed, and even on what’s legal and what isn’t. That’s understandable because the state’s recreational cannabis laws aren’t fully developed yet. We still have a long way to go before we know what the final shape of legalization in New York will be, but we can take a few educated guesses. Whether you’re an upstater or a Brooklynite, a lifelong resident or just passing through, we’ve got the need-to-know facts on marijuana legalization in NY. Read on to find out more about the status of legal weed, marijuana bonds for businesses, and more.

What’s Legal Right Now?

In four fast facts, here’s the need-to-know information about the current legal status of cannabis in New York:

1. Possessing, smoking, eating, or vaping cannabis is legal right now for adults 21 and over in the state of New York. You don’t need a prescription or any other special permission to do so.
2. People may legally possess and use up to three ounces of marijuana flowers on their person or 24 grams of marijuana concentrates. You can legally store up to five pounds at your home.
3. You can enjoy cannabis products anywhere you can smoke tobacco. That could include your home or a public sidewalk, but it won’t include cars, schools, hospitals, or other places where you can’t smoke a cigarette.
4. It’s still not legal to buy or sell marijuana outside of existing medicinal marijuana programs. Buying and selling cannabis products for recreational use won’t become legal until adult-use dispensaries open.

To sum it up: Using and possessing marijuana is now unambiguously legal in New York, but selling it is still technically against the law. Of course, that begs the question: When can we expect legal cannabis sales to kick off in New York?

When Will Adults Use Dispensaries Open?

Short answer: not for a while. Dispensaries won’t be able to open until several months into 2022, at the earliest, to give the state of New York time to fully develop its rules and regulations for these businesses. When dispensary regulations are ready, they’ll come from the New York Office of Cannabis Management, the new agency with the mandate for regulating legal cannabis.

What about people who want to open dispensaries, become marijuana growers, or otherwise join the world of legal cannabis businesses? New York has yet to announce its process for getting a cannabis license. However, if it’s anything like other states’ procedures, it will involve standard elements like an application packet, the payment of fees, a criminal background check, and a marijuana surety bond.

We do know that the state will have a tiered licensing system with separate licenses for different types of businesses like growers and dispensaries. The state will also issue only one license per business, which means (for example) that growers can’t also have dispensary licenses or vice versa. If New York chooses to require marijuana surety bonds, it will be important for businesses to know what a surety bond is and the types of marijuana bonds available so they can obtain the right type.

How Will Medicinal Marijuana Change?

The legalization bill included provisions for expanding New York’s existing medicinal marijuana program. For one thing, medical dispensaries can now sell whole cannabis flowers, which they’ve long been unable to do. Another factor of the MRTA is an expanded list of conditions for which a doctor can prescribe cannabis products—great news for people with any of the dozens of conditions that marijuana may help treat. At their discretion, New York doctors can even prescribe cannabis for conditions that aren’t specifically listed.

The state’s existing marijuana companies that sell medical cannabis and operate dispensaries will have the option of paying a one-time fee to allow them to enter the recreational cannabis market in addition to their existing medical business. These businesses will have an advantage in that they will be the only type of cannabis business able to obtain multiple license types.

Can I Grow Marijuana in My Home?

Eventually, it will be legal for any New Yorker over 21 to grow marijuana in their home for their use, but it’s not legal just yet. Patients with medical prescriptions will be able to begin growing six months after legalization begins, which should be around September 2021. Recreational growers will have to wait longer—18 months after the first dispensary opens, to be precise.

Once growing becomes legal, a person can legally have up to three mature plants and three immature ones at once. If multiple adults live together, their residence can legally have up to 12 plants, six mature and six immature.

How Will Lawmakers Address Racial Justice?

New York lawmakers made it clear that their efforts will include measures to help repair the inequities caused by the disproportionate enforcement of marijuana laws against people of color. Let’s examine how these programs will look. One of the legalization bill’s key components is its allocation of a large portion of cannabis tax revenues to reinvestment in marginalized communities. Lawmakers specified that 40 percent of New York’s revenue from weed sales taxes goes to a social equity fund to bolster infrastructure and jobs in communities of color. Another 40 percent will go to the state’s schools, and the final 20 percent is for drug abuse treatment programs.

Another important provision: At least 50 percent of licenses for adult-use cannabis businesses have to go to social equity applicants—people from communities harmed by cannabis criminalization. That category looks like it will be fairly wide, including people of color, women, people previously convicted of cannabis charges, and farmers.

Do Previous Marijuana Charges Get Expunged?

MRTA automatically expunges certain cannabis offenses from people’s criminal records. This is designed to happen automatically, but it may take up to two years to remove all charges from a person’s record. Talk to an attorney if you’re unsure about how this will affect your criminal record or if you have a charge that should be expunged.

What you bring to prom is almost as important as what you wear to prom. Having an adequately packed clutch could mean all the difference between having a carefree, fun night where you dance the evening away with your friends, to a night of aching feet, split seams, or smeared makeup. To prevent any of these unfortunate issues from marring your perfect evening, consider what to pack into your clutch when you’re shopping for your prom dress.

You don’t want to be hauling around a giant purse all night, so you need to be prudent with what gets the precious space in your clutch, and you’ll also want to choose a clutch that fits all you need.

The clutch

Choose a clutch that has a couple of hidden pockets, and that has a firm clasp that won’t fall open. Make sure it fits your cell phone when you’re buying it so that you can capture Snaps all night, and also make sure that it has an optional cross-body strap. While you might not want to wear it cross-body throughout the entire evening, when you’ve been dancing all night you’ll be happy to have a way to hold onto your things without having to use up a hand.

Mints or breath fresheners

Whatever you decide on to keep your breath fresh, make sure you bring it with you in your clutch. Whether it’s for a kiss during a slow song, or for chatting with friends between songs, making sure your breath is pleasant is a must.

Bobby pins

If your hair has been styled in any way that requires bobby pins, you’ll want to have some extras on hand. Bobby pins have a way of getting away from us, so having some extras on hand to tuck back stray curls will be invaluable when you want to stay styling in your short prom dresses.

Some makeup

You know your skin best, so choose wisely here. If you have a tendency to get oily, then bring blotting papers with you. If you love lipstick, choose a long-lasting color and carry the tube with you for any touch-ups. Same goes for things like lip chap and moisturizer. If possible, bring sample or travel sizes, so they take up less room.

Deodorant

Drop a tiny stick of travel deodorant to freshen up between songs. If your clutch is too small for this, you can also tuck a couple deodorant wipes into a Ziploc bag and tuck it into a hidden pocket. If you’re shy about sweating, look for a dress on JJ’s House whose fabric will help disguise any sweat stains, or opt for a strapless style.

A tampon

Even if you’re not close to your period, someone else might be. Having a tampon or panty liner on hand can be a lifesaver if the worse happens and your period starts early.

Band-Aids

Whether you’re suffering from blisters or have a paper cut, Band-Aids can come in handy when you’re out on the dance floor and need a way to ease the ache in your feet on stop yourself from bleeding.

Buying your first car is incredibly exciting and it will always be a vehicle that you look back fondly on as it provided so much freedom and independence. As a new driver, your needs will be different to other motorists and your key priorities will be something reliable, safe, small, affordable and not too powerful. Here are the main things that you need to consider when buying your first car.

New or Used

First, you should decide whether to buy new or used. In most cases, it is best to choose a used car as it will be more affordable, cheaper to insure and you can get more for your money. When in the used car market, always take your time and only buy from a reputable second hand car dealership to avoid scams and bad deals.

Make & Model

Next, you will need to pick a suitable make and model. It is always best to go with the trusted and reliable manufacturers and to pick a smaller car as these are cheaper to buy, run and insure. You should also select an economical automobile to keep the running costs down as this is another major expense. For instance, Hyundai are a great brand for a first time driver as their automobiles are affordable, reliable and economical. In addition to this, a Hyundai warranty last for 5 years which is longer than most. If you buy one from the used car market that is over 5 years then it is a good idea to take out an extended warranty.

Insurance

As a first time driver, insurance can be a huge cost and especially if you are young as well. It is for this reason why you should buy a vehicle that is small and not too powerful, but you should also shop around and compare prices to find the best deals. There are also other ways that you can reduce the amount that you have to pay each month. On top of motor insurance, you should also consider GAP insurance as this will protect your investment if the vehicle is written off.

There is nothing quite like getting behind the wheel of your very first car and it is one that you will always remember. It is important that you take the time to find the right automobile as it will need to be one that suits your exact needs and gives you confidence whenever you are behind the wheel.

You’ve probably heard the words “silver-gold ratio” if you’ve done any reading about investing in silver and gold. When you compare gold prices to silver prices, you see a big difference, with silver currently trading around $16 / oz. compared to gold at around $1,300 / oz. How could you look at those numbers and tell whether silver is overpriced or underpriced? Simple: the silver-gold ratio.

The historical silver-gold ratio was the same throughout most of human history, around 16 to 1. That started to change around the 1880s. The historical average for the last 300 years is 27, while in the last 30 years it’s fluctuated between 30 and over 90.

Silver and gold generally share price trajectories, with silver often following gold. Comparing the two precious metals helps investors understand which one is a better deal. Silver is more volatile, so when gold prices go up, silver prices rise even faster, and the silver-gold ratio shrinks. When gold prices start to fall, silver also falls faster, and the ratio increases. Right now, the market is seeing the results of a fall after peak precious metal prices in 2011. Silver is undervalued, and it could gain a lot of ground the next time market forces send gold and silver prices back up. But how far could silver prices go?

Using the prices above (and prices change constantly), the silver-gold ratio would be around 81. That means that either silver is highly undervalued historically or gold is overvalued. However, given the fact that gold has spent several years in this price range, many believe that it’s experiencing a bear market, neglected in favor of a stock market that until recently seemed like it could only go up.

You can use the silver-gold ratio to see what kind of growth potential silver might have. While it’s always a risky business trying to forecast silver prices, the silver-gold ratio gives you an idea of what’s possible given historical trends.

As mentioned above, the latest price of silver has roughly an 81:1 ratio with gold. If gold held steady at $1,300 / oz., a move toward a ratio of 60 would have silver at $22.60. A more dramatic shift to the historical average of 27 would have silver at $48 / oz.

Investors have a lot to gain from investing in silver. It has a higher growth potential than gold. You can start investing in silver quickly and easily by buying silver coins from dealers like Silver Gold Bull. The bigger your investments, the more storage will become an issue. But with dealers like Silver Gold Bull, allocated storage solutions mean you can invest in any volume of silver.

It’s estimated that silver is about 17 times more abundant than gold on the planet Earth. Industrial demand and the use of silver in applications that are not recyclable could one day diminish the total available silver. For now, mines continue to produce silver, though supplies are becoming tighter.

Most experts agree that gold will always be more valuable than silver, but that doesn’t mean that investors can make more money from gold. Silver is presently undervalued and any move closer to historical averages would be a huge boon to investors who chose silver over gold.