The exterior of Higher Love is shown. After opening up two Upper Peninsula recreational marijuana shops in the past 14 months, Higher Love will be adding a third in Munising. (Photo courtesy of Joni Moore)

MARQUETTE — After opening up two U.P. recreational marijuana shops in the past 14 months, Higher Love will be adding a third in Munising.

The first Higher Love shop opened up March 2020 in Crystal Falls, and the second was recently added this past month on Washington Street in Marquette. The newest location in Munising will be on 220 E. Munising Ave, and the goal is to have its doors open by Memorial Day, Higher Love President Joni Moore said.

Moore herself has been in the cannabis business for seven years, and Higher Love has been up and running since 2018. It has been working to open these retail stores ever since, she said. Making her passion a reality with the company and its stores, Moore is now spreading her passion and company’s mission to Munising.

“My passions are plants and health and wellness, and that’s what the mission of our company is, is to provide our customers with the highest quality, organically grown cannabis grown in soil to help them on their journey towards better health and wellness,” she said.

Things are going really well right now in Munising, Moore said, as the new spot will have an inspection from the state in two weeks. They then will have to get a license before they can bring product into the store to begin selling, which can be a 10-14 day process, thus the Memorial Day timeline. The community has been supportive of the newest Alger County business, but this time with their votes.

“That’s a really important part of the process, we have to go through the city government for permission to be there, and they have a public hearing,” Moore said. “Everybody in the community is given an opportunity to be heard, yay or nay. The voters spoke with their votes and we spoke with a rigorous process with the city of Munising government.”

Touching on the fast acceleration that Higher Love has taken to now having two opened stores, Moore said that it’s taken a great deal of work in the past 18 months, and there are a lot of others who have helped this process happen so quickly. In less than a month, the number will tick up to three.

Travis Nelson can be reached at tranelso@nmu.edu.