New York Adult-Use Cannabis Tax and What a Medical Certification Does Not Change

The rate at a Leafology register

New York's Department of Taxation and Finance states that a retailer must pay retail taxes totaling 13% on the retail sale or transfer of adult-use cannabis products, effective for sales on and after June 1, 2024. Leafology is a licensed adult-use retailer, so that is the rate that applies to a Leafology sale.

Separately, a distributor pays a 9% tax on the sale or transfer of adult-use cannabis products to a retailer. That one happens at wholesale, before a product reaches the shelf, so you never see it as a line on your receipt. It is not an additional charge added at checkout.

Adult-use cannabis products are exempt from New York sales tax. Accessories are not. Lighters, papers, and glass are ordinary taxable goods, which is why a basket with a grinder in it can look like it was taxed two different ways. It was.

What a medical certification does and does not change

A certification does not turn an adult-use purchase at Leafology into a medical-program transaction. The transaction is still an adult-use transaction, the product is still an adult-use product, the possession rules are still the adult-use rules, and the 13% retail tax still applies.

Anyone telling you that a medical card avoids the tax at an adult-use store is describing something that does not exist. If a page, a budtender, or an ad says otherwise, check it against tax.ny.gov before you plan a purchase around it.

How the medical program is taxed instead

New York taxes medical cannabis differently and at a different level. The Department of Taxation and Finance states the medical cannabis excise rate is 3.15% for sales on and after June 1, 2024, and that the tax is imposed directly on the registered organization rather than on the patient. The department notes it may not appear as a separate line on a patient's invoice or receipt.

That is a genuinely different tax structure attached to a genuinely different channel. Comparing the 13% adult-use retail rate against the 3.15% medical excise is not comparing two prices for the same thing, because only a registered organization can sell in the medical channel, and only a certified patient or registered caregiver can buy there.

Where certified patients are served

If you want medical-program products or purchases recorded inside the program, use a registered organization dispensing facility. Leafology is an adult-use dispensary and does not sell medical-program products.

Rates change by legislation. The two Tax and Finance pages cited on this page are the authority, and both were last updated on December 12, 2025 as of our reading on August 9, 2026. Check them directly rather than trusting any dispensary's summary, this one included.