Higher Love closes
Cannabis store\'s last day was Sunday
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HOUGHTON - Higher Love Cannabis Company announced Monday the closing of five of its nine Upper Peninsula location, including the Houghton store on U.S. 41, in Portage Township.
In a Monday press release, Higher Love, headquartered in Marquette, said Sunday, August 9, 2026, was the final day to place and pick up orders at Crystal Falls, Escanaba, Houghton, Munising and Ontonagon.. The company will continue serving customers at its four dispensaries: Ironwood, Marquette, Menominee and Norway. Higher Love's four continuing locations will remain the foundation for the company's next chapter.
Higher Love said the reason for the closures was driven primarily by the mounting tax burden on Michigan's adult-use cannabis industry. Michigan's new 24% tax on certain wholesale marijuana sales and transfers, effective January 1, 2026, introduced another substantial cost in a market already subject to a 10% retail excise tax and 6% sales tax, the company said.
"While these taxes apply at different stages of the supply chain and do not constitute a single combined tax rate," the company said, "their collective impact has created an increasingly unsustainable operating environment - particularly for compliant businesses serving smaller and rural communities."
Higher Love reflects a growing trend in the cannabis industry across Michigan, with operators throughout the state acing liquidation, receivership, or exit.
On July 29, 2026, the Lansing City Pulse reported Michigan is selling more weed than ever but somehow small operators are going out of business at a rate that should alarm anyone who cares about what this industry was supposed to become.
Pervasive oversupply and stiff competition between new businesses has led to rock-bottom prices and left some large chains in a precarious financial position, the City Pulse reported.
Houghton County reflects this. While Higher Love was the only registered dispensary in Portage Township, there are four such outlets in the city of Houghton and another in Hubbell.
In the fall of 2025, the Michigan Legislature passed HB 4951, the Comprehensive Road Funding Tax Act, which imposed a new 24% wholesale excise tax on cannabis. The stated purpose was to generate approximately $420 million annually for road and bridge repair. The tax became effective on Jan. 1, 2026. The Michigan Cannabis Industry Association filed a lawsuit almost immediately and a bipartisan group of lawmakers has since introduced SB 810 to repeal it but neither effort has resolved the situation. In the meantime, the tax is having the effects the industry warned it would have: layoffs, closures and a more-squeezed market.
On June 8, the Michigan Cannabis Industry Association reported the state collected just under $34 million from the tax during the first quarter of 2026. The new tax was forecast to generate about $315 million for the fiscal year, suggesting cannabis tax revenue is far lower than expected when the new tax was approved by lawmakers.
The association's Robin Schneider said in the report, the tax was promoted as a key funding source for road repairs but has instead led to declining cannabis sales, business closures, layoffs, and reduced revenue for local governments.