It took eighteen months from the moment Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the bill that created the state’s first medical marijuana program until it finally launched on January 7. During that time there’s been plenty of hype, hand-wringing, and — at least among lawmakers trying to improve the bill — haggling.

What there wasn’t much of, apparently, was interest among patients or doctors in taking part in the program. According to numbers released last week by the New York State Department of Health, so far, only 166 patients have registered with the state to obtain medical marijuana. Meanwhile, only 226 of the state’s 79,000 active physicians have completed the necessary steps to become eligible to recommend cannabis to patients.

“It’s hard for me to celebrate this as a success,” says Julie Netherland, New York deputy state director for the Drug Policy Alliance. “I don’t think, for those of us who fought so hard to pass this bill, this is what we were fighting for.” [Read more at the Village Voice]