They Signed Up to Grow Weed. Then New York State Pushed Them Into the Black Market

 They Signed Up to Grow Weed. Then New York State Pushed Them Into the Black Market

Weed legalization was supposed to prioritize mom-and-pop businesses — but for some upstate farmers, things didn’t go as planned.

On a rainy day toward the end of September, a longtime underground marijuana grower we’ll call Shawn coasted up I-86 from the Hudson Valley to Rochester to meet with a legal farmer. The farmer hadn’t…