Cannabis Cultural Association, or CCA, strives to involve underrepresented communities in the legal cannabis industry, by providing informational workshops, cultural programs, and community events with an emphasis on issues disproportionately affecting communities of color. CCA connects a diverse community of passionate, curious and energetic people, especially people of color, around the cannabis plant. All cultures throughout history have used cannabis, and we want to acknowledge and spotlight that. We seek to empower underrepresented communities, especially communities of color, to take action and get involved to reap the emotional and socioeconomic benefits of the emerging cannabis industry.
Nelson Guerrero is a bilingual Ecuadorian-American, who studied Business Administration and History at the City University of New York, Lehman College. He is an experienced entrepreneur; upon graduation, he co-founded NanoTechnostics Inc. a biomedical company that won People’s Choice at the New York State Business Plan Competition and took part in the prestigious LI Comets Accelerator program in Huntington Long Island. Post-Nanotechnostics inc. Nelson worked in various sectors leading in sales and business development. Following his passion for community and Cannabis Nelson Cofounded the non-profit organization the Cannabis Cultural Association. Nelson is an active volunteer for his local community center and a member of the Policy Committee for the Minority Cannabis Business Association.
Jake Plowden, photographer/co-founder/creative director of Cannabis Cultural Association Raised in Harlem and Brooklyn, Jake Plowden has witnessed the worst of the Drug War, seeing family and friends lost to systematic mass incarceration and drug abuse. Jake knew he wanted to get involved in legal cannabis but he wasn’t sure how and didn’t want to be another statistic. Whilst in CUNY Baruch College, he joined Students for Sensible Drug Policy at where he graduated in 2016 with an undergrad in Corporate Communications and Film Studies Analysis. Currently, he’s the co-founder and creative director of the Cannabis Cultural Association – a 501(c)3 non-profit based in NYC that helps marginalized and underrepresented communities engage in the legal cannabis industry, emphasizing criminal justice reform, access to medical cannabis, and adult use legalization. He has conceptualized and organized many of the CCA events with a focus on alternative narratives and perspectives within the cannabis space and the drug war. He is also the co-host of “In The Know 420” Podcast with Joseph Bondy and an aspiring photojournalist.
Joseph A. Bondy is a member of the Cannabis Cultural Association’s Executive Board of Directors. Joe is a private criminal defense lawyer, located in Manhattan. He has been a member of the NORML National Legal Committee for the past 20 years, and is regarded by the American Trial Lawyers College as one of the top 100 criminal trial attorneys in the entire country. He is also a marijuana law, history, and policy scholar. Joe is admitted to various federal district courts, appeals courts, and the Supreme Court of the United States. The New York Times has sad Joe is “eloquent and armed with the serene demeanor of a surgeon,” and that his “Oratorical intensity hovers at the evangelistic.” Over the past twenty-two years, Joe has represented hundreds of individuals, saving them collectively over 1000 years in prison.
