Marley Forsythe, local majority owner, and CEO Salvatore Palma of Higher Level of Care, are the team behind Fresno’s newest cannabis dispensary. Photo by Frank Lopez

Though it hasn’t had its official grand opening yet, Higher Level, a new cannabis dispensary in Fresno, is getting a warm welcome from the community and customers.

Seaside-based Higher Level opened its doors at 4795 N. Blackstone Ave. on Jan. 31, initially to family and friends, with customers trickling in throughout the rest of the day.

Higher Level will have an official grand opening on Feb. 16.

It is Fresno’s seventh dispensary — and the fourth to open this year.

Salvatore Palma, CEO of parent company Higher Level of Care, is a Monterey native who has been in the cannabis industry for more than 10 years.

The local majority owners are Marley Forsythe, who was born and raised in Fresno, and Andrew Rodriguez, who is currently in the Navy but also lived in Fresno for some time.

Forsythe and Rodriguez met Palma through mutual friends at CSU Monterey Bay, with both of them wanting to get into the industry.

Palma opened his first dispensary in San Diego in 2010, but he didn’t enjoy operating in an industry that at the time didn’t have a real tight regulatory framework in place.

“We were legal from the state standpoint, but in San Diego specifically, the city did not explicitly allow dispensaries in their building code, so they were de-facto disallowed,” Palma said.

He said that every few months the business would get a red tag from the city’s building and safety department that they would have to shut down and move to another location.

When Monterey County started establishing its cannabis business regulatory framework in 2015, Palma moved back and opened up the first Higher Level in Carmel. He then set up stores in Castroville in 2016 and Seaside in 2018.

Higher Level has since opened a store in Hollister, Greenfield, and most recently its fourth location in Fresno.

When the City of Fresno adopted its cannabis ordinance, mutual friends reached out to Forsythe and Rodriguez to partner up and open in the Fresno market for a strong local presence.

Forsythe, 27, a psychology major, said that the therapeutic use of cannabis was covered in her education, and as an educator at a continuation high school, mental health is very important to her. She thought Fresno could benefit from having more options for legal, recreational cannabis.

Forsythe said she was surprised about how detailed and time consuming the process of opening a dispensary was.

“People would be surprised to see how long and serious the process is,” Forsythe said. “The city makes a point of going through every single page and dot every single line.”

Palma credits the City of Fresno for its rigorous application process, which has allowed the city to end up with top-tier cannabis dispensary operators, he said.

Because cannabis is still not federally illegal, many cannabis businesses are forced to be cash-only operations. Most banks, especially the larger ones, choose not to work with cannabis operations because of all the regulatory hoops, Palma said.

Fortunately, he said, Higher Level does have a financial institution that provides its banking services.

Palma said that passage of the Safe Banking Act, a federal bill that would provide protections for federally regulated financial institutions that serve legal marijuana businesses, and the rescheduling of cannabis to anything below a schedule-1 narcotic would bring major strides in legitimizing the industry.

Forsythe said she is eager to a be regular presence at the shop with a hands-on approach, interact with customers, and get to know every facet of the business.

Cannabis dispensaries all offer the same products under different brands, which makes the customer experience the most important factor in standing out.

“There’s many components to that,” Palma said. “Pricing, customer service, and education all tie into the experience. That’s why we landed on the name Higher Level. There is a double-entendre but it’s about offering customers a higher level of service.”  

Forsythe is excited to be a part of a new and burgeoning industry, and as a part of a younger generation with less stigma towards cannabis use, and she is glad there is more acceptance of it for recreational use.

She is excited to meet the members of the community and learn all she can about the industry.

“I’m humbled to be a part of this. To see this come to fruition and I hope the community comes out and supports local business. It’s not every day that someone from Fresno has an opportunity like this, especially in such a male-dominated industry,” Forsythe said.