Wyatt HarmsDuring his time at BuzzFeed, Wyatt Harms helped launch the company’s LGBTQ platform, but watched in dismay as profits were recorded “without reinvesting into the queer community by hiring any queer folks in the vertical or investing in any queer nonprofits or anything like that,” he says.
When the opportunity arose to start his own company, the New York cannabis brand FLAMER, he took the opposite approach, focusing on reinvesting more resources back into the queer community.
“Throughout the history of the plant, especially in modern history, a lot of the leaders from the early days were queer folks,” he says. “So infusing that kind of activism and advocacy into what we do is very much the heart of FLAMER.”
FLAMER products are now sold in about 60 stores in New York. The company sources cannabis from farms that are focused on organic cultivation.
The company’s iconic red pre-roll is part of Harms’ goal of making FLAMER the most creative company in cannabis.
“It’s definitely our signature, which was the intention,” Harms says. “We believe in the power of creating strong visuals, so the red grew out of that ethos. It’s funny because people will go into stores and they don’t even know the name ‘FLAMER,’ but they know the red pre-roll.”
But as cannabis becomes more corporate and more mainstream, Harms is concerned about what that means for consumers and their connection to the plant.
“I really want to encourage the cannabis industry to think about how the plant could be a force for good,” he says. “We’ve decided to commoditize this plant, but that doesn’t mean we need to lose its essence. And I am worried about us losing its essence, if it’s just about the money.”