The Governor's office hosted a listening session in Cheektowaga on Wednesday about recreational marijuana regulation.

CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. -- Nine states have legalized recreational marijuana, so could New York be next?

The Governor's office is in the middle of holding listening sessions about regulated marijuana . One such meeting was held Wednesday evening in Cheektowaga with staff from the Department of Health providing assistance to facilitator Sandra Houston who is actually a consultant to Governor Andrew Cuomo on the matter. A Health Department study of the issue produced their conclusion earlier this year that the positives of legalization outweighed the negative factors.

In August, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a group that would come up with draft legislation to set marijuana regulations in New York. As part of the process, the state wants your opinion as it writes the bills for consideration by state lawmakers.

So on Wednesday, hundreds packed a hotel ballroom to make their points, suggestions, and arguments for and against marijuana legislation.

Many spoke of the health impact even though medicinal marijuana has already been approved in New York for some patients. One woman told the facilitator of the meeting "I think that the people who need it for medicine especially should be allowed to be able to grow it."

Dr. Laszlo Metchler of the Dent Neurologic Institute said he was originally a skeptic but now better understands how marijuana can be used effectively by patients. But he did raise this point "This process whatever it may be...be it adult use or recreational...or what I believe in is medical should have a process where physicians take a lead role in committees and indications. We do not want to become California or Colorado which are the Wild West on this issue."

Another man raising this concern "I have been a medical marijuana patient for over eight months and I believe that the current system is failing to provide patients with the cost effective quality product."

Others in the crowd noting legal or criminal justice points. One woman stated "Research tells us that young whites use marijuana more than young people of coloros it's grossly unfair that it's overwhelmingly people of color being hurt by these outdated enforcement actions." Another woman saying "I am in support and I hope that the revenue that will come from doing this will go into the communities that have been negatively affected by the war on drugs."

And some had policy considerations for legalization. One man said "The statutes should allow five plants per person or ten plants per household. This is vital to eliminate the black market and would help eliminate the financial unfairness of consumption."

Erie County Health Commissioner Dr. Gale Burstein suggested "We should bar producers from making edibles that are attractive to children such as candies. I recommend implementing a legal permissive age of 25 years or older give our understanding of brain development."

State Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes has been pushing for the decriminalization of marijuana for years. She supports legalization for adult use only and also spoke at the meeting . For her, the biggest benefit would be the end of the racial disparity in how marijuana laws are enforced.

"There has to be some social justice, and the numbers of people who have been incarcerated as a result of the mass incarceration of the marijuana laws would have to end," Peoples-Stokes said.

On social media, you sent us questions about marijuana regulation. Jim wanted to know how soon the state could legalize it.

"I actually expect that this will get somehow thought through in the upcoming session in 2019. And, I think once we get it passed, I really don't see it being totally implemented before 2020," Peoples-Stokes said.