Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo took a step closer to voicing full-throated support for legal marijuana on Friday, embracing elements of a state Health Department report that favored legalization.

Mr. Cuomo, addressing reporters after an unrelated speech in Brooklyn, said New York would no longer have the option of trying to simply prevent the flow of the drug into the state now that its neighbors in Massachusetts and New Jersey are moving forward with plans to legalize the drug.

“The situation on marijuana is changing,” Mr. Cuomo said. He stopped short of saying he would back legalization in the state in response to the report, but then spoke of logistics as if he would.

“Now you have to answer specifics,” Mr. Cuomo told reporters. “Who sells it? Where do they sell it? What quantity can you sell? That to me, the devil’s in the details. And to come up with a full program, that’s what we have to answer.”

He said he did not expect a new law on the subject before next year. [Read more at The New York Times]