ON AN EARLY MORNING IN OCTOBER, AN ACRE OF CANNABIS greets the morning sun in upstate New York. It grows about 90 minutes north of New York City and belongs to HPI Canna. This is its inaugural legal, recreational venture.
The company went into business as HPI Farma in 2018 after receiving a license to grow hemp. It planted 40 acres in a pilot run in Kingston, New York, but HPI realized its future depended upon a bigger farm. It found a 434-acre spread in Poughkeepsie and in the following three years, HPI Farma cultivated 200 acres of CBD hemp on its land. Today, the brain trust of HPI Canna is looking forward to harvest, set to begin tomorrow.
It’s hard to believe. I’ve lived in New York for nearly 50 years and witnessed the slow, painful path to legalization. You’d think that it would have happened sooner. After all, New York is one of the most liberal states in America, with over 75% of voters registered as Democrats.
California, of course, was first to legalize medical marijuana in 1996, but it took 18 years before New York followed suit! Twenty-two states legalized medical marijuana before we did, while 14 states legalized adult-use cannabis
