Legal weed finally comes to Fresno’s Tower District as Dr. Greenthumb’s dispensary opens

The Tower District finally has a cannabis dispensary, nearly three years after the city began permitting for legal weed.

Hundreds of people lined up Saturday for the grand opening of Dr. Greenthumb’s, a 3,500 square-foot shop in what was once an abandoned bank on Wishon Avenue near the Tower Theatre.

Some had been camped out since Thursday to get a front-row spot at the ribbon cutting, which was led by Dr. Greenthumb himself: Cypress Hill rapper B-Real. Afterward someone was heard to yell, “let’s all get high.”

The day-long celebration included in-store giveaways, plus food trucks and a lowrider car show.

The whole thing felt like a throwback, B-Real said.

He was reminded of the early days of Cypress Hill, when the band released an album and fans would line up around the block at record stores.

“It’s been exciting,” he said.

The rapper started the dispensary chain in Los Angeles in 2018 and has opened six stores across the state, including Fresno. It’s a place he knew he always wanted to be.

“We know there is a big cannabis culture here,” he said.

Not to mention a love for his band.

The rapper spent much of the morning among the crowd, giving out fist bumps and posing for pictures, or signing autographs on photos, T-shirts, baseball caps and album covers.

Otherwise, he was ensconced in a golden-wrapped tour bus called the Twerkulator.

“To be here,” he said, “it’s great.”

A vacant building and a dream

When Dr. Greenthumb’s branding went up last month, the bright green and yellow arguably became the most visible sign of the arrival of legal cannabis in the city.

But the neighborhood has been waiting. Kacey Auston was one of the first locals to announce an intention to apply for a cannabis license, when she took over the building in early 2021.

It was one of two licenses she was awarded.

She’s also part owner of the Cookies dispensary, which opened in December on Blackstone, just north of Shaw.

But the Tower district dispensary is special, she said. Auston grew up just blocks for the building, which had been vacant since the Bank of American branch closed in 2017. The dispensary is aligned with neighborhood revitalization and a keeping of the culture, Auston said.

“I was a Tower rat as a kid, so this is a dream come true for me,” she said.

“We’re going to help keep the Tower weird.”

The bank’s vault is hidden somewhere in back and the remnants of the old building have been removed to make way for the 1,525 square-foot sales floor, which is wide open and decorated with a mural-sized action shot of B Real on stage, the giant green swirl of his signature thumb print and other memorabilia.

His “Dr. Greenthumb” record hands on the back wall.

Product-wise, the store carries Dr. Greenthumb’s full product line, which includes pre-rolls and flower and hash oil. They also carry B Real’s Insane product line, which the rapper launched in 1998, and product lines from Snoop Dogg, Stiiizy and others.

Councilmember Annalisa Perea, whose district includes the Tower, was at Saturday’s opening and called it transformative.

“This building alone has been vacant for so long,” she said.

“This is the definition of revitalization.”

And having another dispensary operating puts the city closer to meeting its projected tax revenue goals for cannabis, she said. So far, the revenue from cannabis has fallen short of forecasts, by as much as $3 million.

Other dispensaries coming soon

Of course, up until this year, the roll out of legal weed had been slow in Fresno.

Two shops, Embarc and the Artist Tree, opened on the same day in July 2022 and operated without competition for more than a year before the Station opened across from Fashion Fair Mall last December.

Since then, four more dispensaries have opened, including Cookies (on Blackstone and Shaw), Higher Level (on Blackstone at Santa Ana) and two Culture Cannabis Club locations (on Bullard at Highway 41 and at Maple and Jensen avenues).

And there are more coming.

The Sweet Flower dispensary is set for its grand opening this weekend at Shields and Maroa avenues, in the same shopping center that houses El Premio Mayor taqueria and A 1 Liquor.

Work is visibly underway also at the old Fui Hai Chinese restaurant at Belmont and Blackstone avenues. Haven, which already operates a dispensary in Porterville, is expected at that location sometime this month, according to its website.

Bayan Tree Fresno had its own pre-launch party on Saturday, according to its social media. The dispensary is slated to open on Sierra Avenue just off Blackstone.

A second Embarc location is underway at an old 7-11 store at Shaw and West avenues.

State audit on permitting practices

All of this is happening as the state’s Auditor’s Office released a report last month urging municipalities to take steps to prevent favoritism and encourage transparency in the licensing of cannabis dispensaries.

The report looked at the procedures in place in Monterey and Santa Barbara counties and in Sacramento, San Diego, South Lake Tahoe and Fresno.

The report found all six municipalities “did not always include several best practices in their permitting policies that help to ensure fairness and prevent conflicts of interest, abuse, and favoritism.”

Among the critiques for Fresno was the lack of an administrative appeals process for applicants.