Marijuana dispensary joins Fresno neighborhood. Is this street the new cannabis row?

Sal Palma got into the cannabis business at a time when the term dispensary still carried medical connotations and you needed a doctor’s recommendation to buy legal weed.

His company’s name, Higher Level of Care, spoke to its customer base at the time (with a marijuana pun to boot).

This was 2010; the same year California voters rejected Prop. 19, which would have legalized recreational marijuana use. It would be six years before the passage of Prop. 64, and another five before Fresno awarded licenses to allow for retail shops within city limits.

In the years since, the market has shifted, says Palma, who now owns and operates four Higher Level dispensaries: three on the Central Coast and a new location in Fresno at Blackstone and Santa Ana avenues.

The store had a soft opening in late January and is hosting a grand opening celebration at 8 a.m. Friday. There will be product specials all day and Dab Tacos will be on-site with the restaurant’s new food truck from noon to 5 p.m. offering free food for those with qualifying purchases.

Inside, the store trades the open, modern design vibe of other dispensaries for something more industrial and intimate. It’s all wood panel and faux brick.

The product is kept off the sales floor, on shelves or in glass display cases that line the room.

The store offers a full-line of cannabis products from pre-rolls and flower, to edibles (Dr. Norms salted caramel Blondie) and beverages, which are becoming increasingly popular.

You can also buy straight cannabis and olive oil, which can be used for cooking and tastes exactly like it sounds.

The store currently has a buy-one get-one special running on Kali Gold concentrates, which is manufactured in a facility next to Higher Level’s location in Seaside.

A focus on ‘care’

While recreational usage has taken over the market, many customers are still using cannabis — and related CBD products — to address things like anxiety, sleep issues or even PTSD, Palma says.

“There’s still something they are trying to address.”

So, while Higher Level has dropped the emphasis on wellness from its name, health and wellness remains a core value for the company and something on which employees are educated.

That’s what Marley Forsyth noticed as a customer, when she frequented the dispensary as a student at CSU Monterey Bay. It’s what made her decide to reach out and partner with the company when she moved back to Fresno after college.

“The customer service always stood out to me.”

There were other shops in the area at the time, but Higher Level was the one she went back to. She trusted the staff to help her find the right product, for her recreational purposes, certainly, but also in dealing with some anxiety.

“I’m really thankful for that,” says Forsyth, who has majority local ownership in the dispensary.

Blackstone Avenue as cannabis row

Higher Level’s location puts it in the middle of Fresno’s cannabis hub.

While city ordinance requires a minimum distance between dispensaries, Higher Level is the third to open within about a half-mile span of Blackstone Avenue.

To the south, there’s Embarc, which opened two years ago in a building at Gettysburg Avenue. Councilmember Miguel Arias, who chaired the city’s Cannabis Committee, was its first customer.

To the north just past Shaw Avenue is Cookies, which had a blow-out grand opening in late December. At least one customer waited in line 22 hours for a chance to be first in the store and to meet the company’s celebrity CEO.

A fourth dispensary, the Station, also opened in December about a mile to the east, on Shaw Avenue across from Fashion Fair Mall.

The city allows for 21 retails dispensaries: three in each of the seven council districts, though that number was skewed with the city’s redistricting in 2021.

District four, which covers central Fresno, got an extra license.

There are now two dispensaries in north Fresno: Culture Cannabis on Bullard Avenue at Highway 41 and The Artist Tree in the Park Place Shopping Center at Palm and Ness avenues.

Culture Cannabis also opened a location at Maple and Jensen avenues. It’s the only dispensary in south Fresno.

Downtown and the Tower District, two neighborhoods that seem primed for recreational cannabis stores, are still waiting, though within the past week there has been visible progress on the old Bank of American building on Wishon Avenue in the Tower.

That building is slated to open as Dr. Greenthumbs, the dispensary and cannabis brand from Cypress Hill rapper B-Real. While no official opening date has been released, B-Real has been teasing the spot on social media and word is he will be visiting the store for a grand opening.