Jesce Horton founded LOWD, a craft cannabis company located in Portland, Oregon, in 2015. Immersed in Oregon cannabis causes and beyond, Horton was appointed by Oregon Governor Kate Brown to the Task Force for Cannabis Environmental Best Practices in 2016 and sits on the Board of Directors for both the Oregon Cannabis Business Association and the Oregon Cannabis Association.
With his wife, Jeannette Ward Horton—also an established industry leader in the space—they founded NuProject, a nonprofit seeded in-part by the City of Portland since 2019. The organization provides grants, loans, educational resources, job matching assistance and entrepreneurial services to cannabis business owners and start-ups.
Nationally, Horton co-founded the Minority Cannabis Business Association, founded and is an advisory board member for Marijuana Business Daily and is involved with, and past board member of, the Resource Innovation Institute—a national leader in establishing and educating on standards of farming practices.
An advisory board member of Ben’s Best, a venture by Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream company, its focus is on funding Black-owned cannabis companies, supporting the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition and the Last Prisoner Project.
He’s also on a number of federal, state and local cannabis regulatory advisory committees, helping to design and strengthen cannabis markets in both Oregon and California and then some.
Horton’s resume may read as though he was born into the cannabis industry, but his journey to his place in the space, and to the Pacific Northwest from his birthplace of Charlottesville, Virginia, really did begin before he was born, when his father was arrested for carrying less than an ounce of weed.
Courtesy of Jesce Horton
Less than an Ounce, One Seed and Persecution
Horton knows first-hand how the failed War on Drugs can negatively affect just one small family …
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Author: Sharon Letts / High Times
