Major cannabis brand opens just outside Clovis. What’s the city’s view of legal weed?

The popular cannabis brand Stiiizy has opened a flagship store in a strip mall just off Willow Avenue, just across the street from the Clovis city limits.

It’s slotted between a Hawaiian barbecue restaurant and a taqueria, and is somewhat hidden in the back of a parking lot shared with a Walmart Neighborhood Market.

Still, people have found it, “now that the signs are up,” says general manager Aida Ruiz.

“We are such a notable brand.”

What is Stiiizy?

Started in Los Angeles in 2017, Stiiizy is one of the best-known vertically integrated cannabis companies. That is to say: It operates across all aspects of the industry, offering its products (notably vapes and battery systems) both in its flagship stores (35 now, in California) and at other dispensaries.

The Station on Shaw Avenue, for example, has a wall dedicated to Stiiizy products.

And the brand has its loyalists (and its own sub Reddit thread). A industry report from the Brightfield Group last year had nearly 50% of the state’s vape consumers saying they’ve bought Stiiizy products, with more than 90% saying they’d do it again.

The flagship stores have better pricing (and a return and exchange policy), bud tenders who are well-versed in the brand and culture, and a tease of the newest products before they are anywhere else.

“We’re always going to strive to innovate,” Ruiz says of the company.

“Any new product,” she says, “will be here first.”

Right now, that is something called Live Resin Liquid Diamonds, which, according to Stiiizy’s social media, was created after “10 million hours of R&D, real scientists (obviously), and tons of seshes that got us a little too faded.”

Bailie Blecher was picking up at the store on Wednesday afternoon. She’s had no idea Stiiizy was opening a store in the area and just happened to see the sign while driving by.

She will be a regular.

She and her husband grew up in Clovis and their son goes to school there. They live in Yokuts Valley, but work in Fresno.

“This is in the middle of where we’re going,” she says.

Of the 13 dispensaries now open in Fresno, Stiiizy is the first to operate in the northeast part of the city; literally on the border with Clovis. Those residents now have access to recreational marijuana without having to drive into Fresno proper.

“Clovis has been so supportive of us being here,” says Stiiizy manager Ruiz.

“This is long overdue.”

Legal marijuana still prohibited in Clovis (mostly)

While recreational marijuana has been legal in the state since 2016, local jurisdictions have had the authority to regulate commercial cannabis activity; things like retails sales and delivery.

Five cities in Fresno County have fully embraced legal marijuana, but the majority (nine cities, including Clovis) continue to prohibit cannabis businesses.

Clovis’ current marijuana ordinance prohibits the retail sale and distribution of recreational marijuana (including recreational marijuana deliveries) within the city.

The ordinance was amended in January (and again last week) to set rules complying with state law requiring deliveries of medicinal marijuana to patients.

But otherwise, all prohibitions are in effect, says Clovis city manager John Holt, and won’t likely change soon: “I do not foresee the current city council supporting dispensaries in Clovis in the near term.”

But consumers shouldn’t worry about driving home with cannabis they purchased from outside the city.

According to Clovis Police Department spokesperson Ty Woods, as long as the product is sealed in its packaging (unopened) and under an ounce in weight (the personal use limit in the state) there is no violation.