Growing up in the Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Emmett Reiner and Jackson Wootton knew they wanted to innovate. They had a nearly-daily standing appointment at their favorite taco truck where they talked about the future, and how they’d grow their nascent cannabis business, Uava Labs, after graduating from Colorado University Boulder this spring.
On January 10, they’d just officially launched their vape pen device weeks earlier, and were soaking up some sun at the beach last week before their return to a snowy Colorado winter. Then they saw the smoke.
“We were just like, ‘Oh, there’s another California wildfire,’” says Reiner. But it wasn’t. “I turn around and it was just smoke everywhere. We’re on the beach and I hear this plane come, diving down, like, right in front. I used to volunteer for the fire department. I was like, ‘Oh, that is not good Jackson.’”
Reiner had been an Eagle Scout and a volunteer firefighter with the LAFD. He called his dad, drove home, and packed a go bag; Jackson did the same. They didn’t pack much, assuming they’d get to return to their homes the next day; Californians are no strangers to wildfires. They never anticipated that they’d never get to go back.
They never anticipated that they’d never get to go back.
With their parents and grandparents evacuated, Wootton and Reiner stayed with a friend who lived in a safe zone. They slept fitfully that first night; Reiner was covered in soot. The next morning they woke in a panic—hundreds of units of their pens were still at Wootton’s house.
“We don’t have the money to replace that. We’re college kids,” says Reiner. “Our last three years are wasted if we don’t get back in there.”
They got in the car and went back into the fray, claiming they were with the media to get past the police blockade. Palisades High, Reiner’s school, was gone; the village center was gone; car wheels had melted into the ground. The Uava batteries, blessedly, were unharmed. They threw them in the car and drove out of the danger zone.
“Just driving around, it was like the end of the world. It was like a war zone.”
Jackson Wootton
As of writing, the two largest wildfires, Palisades and Eaton, have collectively burned nearly 38,000 acres—that’s over two Manhattans, or over 28,000 football fields. Thousands have lost their homes, cannot return to their jobs, or have evacuated away from their communities and ways of life. The fires are still far from full containment, and many of the over 150,000 displaced residents have no home to return to. It’s in times like these that communities come together, and no one knows that better than cannabis people.
America’s cannabis capital activates to help
Los Angeles is the entertainment capital of the country, but it’s also the unofficial cannabis capital of California, with over 1,400 licensed dispensaries, cultivators, processors, and ancillary businesses. Already, many have jumped to help their neighbors, customers, and employees with PPE, clothing, food, water, and cash.
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This desire often comes from cannabis operators who’ve been victims of previous wildfires. As soon as George Sadler heard about the fires in Los Angeles, he sprung into action from his home in San Diego. Sadler knew the stakes—in 2012, he lost everything in the Potrero wildfire. His house, his crop, his sense of security.
“I lost every single thing that I owned. So I know what this whole thing is like,” he says. “You think it’s just a fire. We’re at the tail end of what’s going on, but that’s just the flames. That’s not what this is leaving.”
For the last week, Sadler, who founded his cannabis company Gelato Canna Co in 2022, has been driving up supplies and cases of his water brand Gelato water to impacted neighborhoods. He estimates he’s sent over 120,000 cans to donation spots, first responders, and animal shelters.
Water is essential to human survival, and so is cash. Embarc dispensary started a Gofundme with a starting pledge of $16,000; in five days they’re only a few thousand short of their $60,000 goal.
The Artist Tree, which operates four dispensaries in the Los Angeles area, has launched a donation match website with a pledge of $25,000 for the California Community Foundation’s Wildfire Recovery Fund, which works directly with the most vulnerable communities across Los Angeles. They are also accepting donations for their local YMCA location in Koreatown. At the end of the month, they plan to host a fundraiser concert.
Lauren Fontein, one of The Artist Tree co-founders, knows how important aid can be to struggling communities from how hard it is to run a cannabis business in the best of times.
“Insurance [premiums are] going to be big. We already have to pay very high insurance rates as a cannabis business in general. The rates go up every year anyway, but I can only imagine what’s going to happen in the aftermath of these fires. People have already been struggling with a lot of other issues.”
Fires not only destabilize people’s health, homes, and jobs, but also their sense of culture. Rapper and Los Angeles native B-Real has been speaking about the fires and resources for those impacted on his podcast, BREALTV, daily. His dispensary chain, Dr Greenthumb’s, is accepting and distributing donations at their West LA location. Dr Greenthumb’s CMO Kim Barker says they’ve helped their own employees as they apply for FEMA, and have made multiple trips to COSTCO for supplies.
“When you leave with just the clothes on your back, you know, like, oh, wow, six new pairs of socks. One thing I don’t have to think about,” she says. “We want to have relationships with the businesses around us, and we want to have relationships with the people. Because we want to be that good neighbor.”
Verified aid resource to donate to
Unfortunately, not everyone wants to be a good neighbor. Not every fundraiser has good intentions. The list of resources below come directly from organizations and have been verified. We will update this document with additional information as it arises.
Resources
Mutual Aid LA’s Fire & Wind Storm resources spreadsheet
Housing and tenant information
Transitional Sheltering Assistance through FEMA
Find a FEMA Disaster Recovery Shelter
Care Camps for youth recreation:
California Department of Insurance wildfire resources
Free childcare, wifi, and showers at YMCA locations
Funds and loans
Apply for a SAVE card from the California Fire Foundation ($250)
Home, business and economic injury disaster loans
FEMA application and assistance with your application
Grants from the Department of Social Services
Where to donate
Embarc’s United Cannabis Community Gofundme
The Artist Tree’s Wildfire Fund
California Community Foundation Wildfire Fund
National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster
Vouchers
Hotel vouchers through LA 211, Hilton, and American Express
Uber users can use code WILDFIRE25 to get a $40 credit to a shelter within Los Angeles county.
Cannabis relief and resources
Disaster Relief from the Department of Cannabis Control
California State of Emergency Tax Relief
You can use the comments to add more relief links below.
