A rallying of support in difficult times lit the match for one of Philadelphia’s leading cannabis activists, and the city’s cannabis culture has been riding the high ever since.

Upper Darby native N.A. Poe shared his story of finding a connection, a cause, and ultimately a community with Philadelphia Weekly’s Max Marin as part of “The Philly Effect” series.

“Politically, more than any other subset of culture, we can’t be divided and ruled by color or race or religion,” Poe said. “We have high-profile veterans and people who have debilitating diseases that they use cannabis for.

“You come to one of these parties and you see a 50-year-old white woman and then a 25-year-old African-American kid with a bunch of his friends. What we’ve done is created a community that doesn’t exclude, and by doing so, we’ve created a wide base of people who are concerned about each other. This isn’t just about white people or black people or men or women.”

Read more of Poe’s journey from Occupy Philadelphia to two years of federal probation to decriminalizing marijuana and spreading the cannabis culture across the city in Philadelphia Weekly here.

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