When Colorado-based ganjapreneur Jayson Emo saw the viral video of police raiding an unpermitted medical marijuana dispensary in Santa Ana, Calif. — a video that included footage of a female police officer saying she wanted to kick dispensary manager Marla James (a 54-year-old wheelchair-bound amputee and marijuana activist) in her “nub” — he knew he had to do something.
“We were watching the video online, and (my talent manager) Bobby was actually over here at my office, and one of my employees said, ‘You see how much duct tape is on her wheelchair?'” said Emo, who is better known in Colorado’s cannabis community as Giddy Up. “My manager Bird called her attorney and we talked with her, and she said (the wheelchair) was 10 years old and she could barely keep it charged.”
Giddy Up owns EmoTek Labs, which manufactures machines that extract concentrates from marijuana and other botanicals, and he played detective with James and found out some wheelchair features that would be important to her. And then he set up the delivery — and enlisted the help of his buddy Too Short, an MC best known for his gangsta rap in the ’90s.
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“Me and Too Short have the same talent manager, Bobby Loco, and Bobby introduced me to Too Short when I was out there doing some video stuff,” Giddy Up said. “(Too Short) is cool as f–k, and I think he likes that he’s taller than I am. When I was putting this chair together for Marla, Bobby had told Too Short what I was doing and he wanted to be a part of it.”
When Giddy Up and Too Short recently delivered the new power wheelchair to James at Hurricane’s Bar and Grill in Huntington Beach, Calif, TMZ was there to capture the exchange — though they mistakenly insinuated that Too Short was the one behind the philanthropic act: “Too Short has come to the rescue of a handicapped marijuana dispensary worker humiliated by cops,” TMZ’s story starts.
The power wheelchair gifted to James, a Jazzy 600 ES, retails for around $4,000 — but Giddy Up said he spent between $6,000 and $7,000 in full, and now he’s contemplating buying or renting one for himself for a particular cannabis-related event.
“It’s really cool,” Giddy Up said. “I think I want one to ride around the Cannabis Cup with.
“Giving Marla the chair, it reaffirmed that I’m in a position to make the changes I’d like to see in the world. If there’s something I’d like to do from now on, I’ll do it. It’s great to help people out when they need it. It’s not what got me in this business, but it’s what keeps me in this business.”
TMZ’s video of Too Short and Giddy Up gifting the wheelchair to James: