How LOWD Founder Jesce Horton Built A Multimillion-Dollar Cannabis Brand After Being A Casualty Of The War On Drugs

On a Roll: Jesce Horton, an industrial engineer who grows cannabis, made LOWD one of Oregon’s most respected producers.

Emiliano Granado

Like many kids out of high school in North Carolina, James Horton enjoyed the final days of summer with friends before going to college. After entering the University of North Carolina, all that remained was relaxation. But one night while driving home from a party, he saw those red and blue lights in his rearview mirror. Horton didn’t have a driver’s license – but he had a little less than an ounce of weed in the car. He knew he was in trouble. And he knew he wouldn’t be a newcomer to campus this fall.

“[He] was a good kid, “says Jesce Horton, James’ son,”[he] For that he got seven years in prison. “

Upon his release, Horton’s father returned to UNC, earned a master’s degree in business administration, and worked his way up from caretaker to vice president of the State Farm. Of course, when Jesce started experimenting with cannabis at the age of 16, his father tried to prevent him from using the substance that put him in jail.

“It was crazy, man,” says Jesce Horton, who is now 38. “He tested me for drugs after high school. Sometimes I’ve failed, sometimes I’ve passed, but [my parents] did everything to stay away from cannabis. “

They failed.

Today, Jesce Horton, as Co-Founder and CEO of Portland-based LOWD, legally grows some of Oregon’s most sought-after high-end cannabis. LOWD, which stands for Love Our Weed Daily (“loud” is also slang for high quality marijuana), prides itself on being an award-winning cannabis company that sells some of the most anticipated craft flowers in the state. The company uses a precisely tempered ripening room with custom lighting and shelving where the flowers are stored in jars before they arrive at the retailer.

Getting Loud: LOWD grows some of Oregon’s most sought-after cannabis strains, including their CropDuster strain.

Resin lens

Horton, who is Black, co-founded LOWD in 2019, in part to reclaim economic opportunities in the $ 20 billion industry for communities hurt by America’s decades-long war on drugs. In an industry projected to reach $ 41 billion by 2025, less than five percent of cannabis business owners are black today. But LOWD was originally backed by a list of all black investors. The company had sales of around $ 750,000 last year, and Horton says sales are expected to reach $ 3.5 million by the end of 2021 and expect a profit of nearly $ 1.5 million.

Today 37 states allow medical marijuana while 18 have legalized adult use. Earlier this month, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer tabled a bill proposing federal legalization, but the votes are unlikely to have come yet.

Right now, in an industry dominated by companies backed by white billionaires, Horton is making his voice heard through LOWD. “The importance of being at the table, point and point,” says Horton of black cannabis entrepreneurs who have a say in legislation and business development. He and his family know only too well how the cannabis ban has systematically targeted black and brown communities across America for decades. Because of racial differences in drug control, blacks and browns are 3.73 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana than whites, although use rates are similar.

Diverse Buds: Horton and LOWD Co-Founder Dave Murray built a company focused on giving back to communities harmed by the American cannabis ban.

Emiliano Granado

Despite his parents’ best efforts, Horton was first arrested for cannabis at 18 and continued to have minor runs with the police for the next several years. His affinity for marijuana stayed with him throughout his adult life, but he was no slacker. In 2002 he attended Florida State University, majoring in industrial engineering and minor in mathematics and physics. The FSU and the HBCU Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University together form an engineering school between the two institutions.

While in college, he interned with General Electric for three consecutive summers, but missed a full-time position after failing a drug test. But like his father, he didn’t let adversity get in the way. Horton got a position at Siemens as part of their leadership development program and moved to the company’s headquarters in Munich, Germany. On the weekends he spent his time in Amsterdam and tried cannabis in the city’s famous coffee shops.

Horton coldly called and emailed about 2,000 potential investors in the cannabis industry. He got no answers.

In 2013, Horton moved to Portland just as the legal cannabis industry was budding in Oregon. Dissatisfied with his work at Siemens, he decided to grow a small herb in his cellar. It was only a matter of time before he devoted his entire professional life to growing cannabis. After a little over a year in Portland, he resigned from his position at Siemens. He called his mother and delivered the message, she hung up.

Horton immediately began looking for funding. After cold calling and emailing about 2,000 contacts from a list of potential investors in the cannabis industry, he received no responses.

“There was a lot of bootstrapping involved,” says Horton of his beginnings after Siemens. “These 2,000 investors didn’t know me. I didn’t have the intrinsic qualities that they might want to help them get to know me or see themselves in myself. ”

Eventually he found a solution from an unusual source – his father. James Horton agreed to invest $ 30,000 in the nascent business, and Jesce then reached out to friends and family and put together a round of funding that consisted entirely of colored people. His parents and several other family members, each with scissors in hand, helped him cut off the buds for his first harvest. To save money, Horton uses his engineering training to build efficient plants. Today LOWD cultivates cannabis in a 7,500 square meter indoor grow facility.

Craft Cannabis: Since many marijuana markets are dominated by companies focused on maximizing yield, LOWD produces craft cannabis in small batches.

Photo of cannacribs; Mural by Amaranta Colindres

And like most cannabis entrepreneurs, Horton is anxious to pass on what he has sown. He has helped create two nonprofits focused on social, legal, and justice-based cannabis reforms. Horton and his wife Jeannette started the NuLeaf project that worked with Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s and his new cannabis company Ben’s Best, Scotts Miracle Gro and the City of Portland, has $ 1 million in grants and zero percent Interest given loans to black and brown entrepreneurs running cannabis businesses. By focusing on fundraising, education and public relations, as well as creating connections for future entrepreneurs, NuLeaf aims to build intergenerational prosperity for communities that have historically been hardest hit by unfair cannabis laws and practices.

Horton also helped found the Minority Cannabis Business Association, which promotes the economic empowerment of color communities by helping create guidelines, social programs, and outreach initiatives. “[We’re] Using cannabis tax revenues to achieve real community benefits, “says Horton,” regardless of their connection to cannabis. “

Today, decades after his life took a detour through college, James Horton is proud of his son’s work. But Jesce Horton also knows that there is still a lot to do to make the industry more diverse.

“The community as a whole has been damaged, is afraid, doesn’t trust legalization,” says Horton. “If we can develop programs that really use this wealth of cannabis … to really support things, so people can say, ‘Without this cannabis industry, I don’t know this opportunity would have opened up for me.'”