Maker Spotlight: Fumes Papers
High Off Fumes is a Black-owned cannabis accessory company based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Fumes was founded by brothers, Treno Morton, Tyler Morton and Josh Creighton.
Treno Morton, Tyler Morton & Josh Creighton. A small company, making big waves! Fumes is the first local, Black-owned product to hit Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation cannabis store shelves, a major contract for the brothers.
In a series of interviews between Victories Walton from The Coast and the owners of High off Fumes, they details how they got into the industry in the first place, where it has brought them, and their inspiring dreams for the future.
“We were exploring a bunch of different ventures, and it just so happens me and my brother Treno smoke a lot of cannabis, so it just seemed to fit,” Josh Creighton says.
Before the paper company was established, Tyler Morton, the eldest of the three brothers, was already well established within the real estate rental industry, with his own company. Tyler’s experience owning and operating his own business would become a huge asset for the brother’s next up and coming venture.
“When it came to testing products, me and Treno were the experts on that,” says Josh, while Tyler brought business expertise to the project. “I’m a little seasoned, I’m 15 years their senior,” Tyler says. Creighton adds, “honestly a lot of the business came to fruition because of him because he’s had that experience and he’s had multiple business ventures before, so he could lend that support.”
“A question that we get asked a lot is what makes you different from X, what makes you different from Y? And my answer is always, we don’t know the owner of Zigzags, we don’t know the owners of RAW, we don’t know the owners of OCB. I’m here in your store, I’m the owner,” says Tyler.
Supporting these entrepreneurs is a great reason to break an old habit and branch out from the brand name rollies we have all known for decades to try something new. Tyler says it simply, and it resonated with me: It comes down to the people. Not a big brand name, with big promises, and fancy advertisements. When you can put faces behind a product, it allows you to know that you’re supporting real people with entrepreneurial spirit, not massive corporations’ shareholders. In this case, you’re also putting your dollars behind the project of establishing racial equity in the legal cannabis space.
As of 2021, Black people made up around 7% of the executive and ownership structure of Canadian cannabis businesses. One of Fumes' goals is to shift that paradigm, and reestablish black ownership within the cannabis industry.
“For many years minorities, visible people of colour have always been seen through the media, through culture and through other people’s presumptions, as criminals or things like that, especially when it was illegal,” says Tyler. “Everyone was selling weed, in the media it was perceived that only Blacks or people of colour were selling weed.” Treno says Fumes is working to eliminate the negative stigma around Black people in the cannabis industry. “That’s what I love about our social media, we make it fun and we make it our own. We’re able to show that Black people are able to do positive things in the cannabis industry as well.” Speaking of which, follow them on Instagram @highofffumes247.
In the future Fumes hopes to create more accessory products like blunt wraps and cones, rolling trays and grinders. But the longer-term goals are even bigger. “Eventually, it would be amazing to get into growing and then to cultivate like a Black growers program,” says Creighton. With that, it’s only a matter of time before people of colour begin reclaiming the industry. “I’m a minority, I’m Black,” says Tyler. "It’s just a matter of it no longer being seen as a negative, and this being seen as a positive.”
Try their papers for yourselves, they’re on our shelves right next to the Zig Zags and RAWs, right where they belong.