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By WES ABNEY | PHOTO by DANIEL BERMAN
CAPTURING A HISTORIC MOVEMENT 420 Media’s Kerri Accardi and Gubbi Chiriboga
dropped their lives in New York to document Washington’s Cannabis culture. A new media company in Seattle aims to change the game on how access points reach their patients with information and marketing, and, if they’re right, change how millions of online users view the Cannabis industry. Kerri Accardi and Gubbi Chiriboga founded 420 Media a few months ago, shutting down another production company and committing themselves to the Cannabis industry. It was a big risk, but the motivation for sharing media goes beyond traditional business desires. The two believe in medical Cannabis, and this passion has led Kerri on a mission across the country that most would say is impossible.
Ten months ago, Kerri was living in New York with her self-described huge family, all in support of her Aunt Kathy. She had been diagnosed
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with pancreatic cancer in February of 2013 and had just been diagnosed cancer-free. But it was a misdiagnosis. “They said she was OK, but she got sick, couldn’t eat ... they thought it was something simple, but they opened her up and saw it [the cancer] had spread everywhere,” Kerri said. “At that point, I was fighting so hard to educate my family about MMJ, and a higher power came over me, literally. I made my uncle watch [the film] “Run From the Cure” about Rick Simpson, and we found her oil. I had to pray and scream, but we got it to her. September 19, the day before she went into hospice, she was being read her last rites.”
That day, the musician Paul Simon came to play in her hospital room, and they gave her a dose of oil the size of a rice grain. Kathy had been vomiting nonstop for days, and had a sore on her face that hadn’t healed in weeks. The next day Kerri visited, and she said the results were unbelievable. “The next day the sore was completely gone, and she never puked again until October 2, when she passed. She was able to have relief ... until the end.”