Chamber Event Works to Include Chehalis Pot Store in Business Community

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In an effort to include the burgeoning legal marijuana industry in the local business community, the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce held its monthly Business After Hours event at Old Toby marijuana store on Thursday.

The event began at 4:20 p.m. on 4/20, an unofficial holiday celebrated by marijuana enthusiasts across the world. 

Chamber members, community members and marijuana enthusiasts gathered to enjoy a little live music, food, conversation and a mechanical bull. 

“For the Chamber to be willing to come by and check us out is very important,” Old Toby’s co-owner Jerrie Paine said. “We are very thankful to be here.” 

To hold an after-hours event with the Chamber, a business has to be a member and have a business license, Chamber Executive Director Alicia Bull said. The city of Chehalis issued Old Toby a business license, and it is a member of the Chamber.

“Our job isn’t to discriminate, it is to promote business,” Bull said. “The Chamber has an obligation to support business … If it is allowed by the city, it is allowed by us.” 

Bull said more people called her in support of the event, with some saying they saw it as an opportunity for them to view the shop and talk to the owners, than people calling in opposition to it. 

“We believe education will make all the difference in the world when it comes to the acceptance of this industry,” Paine said. “We are here to serve the community in a positive way.” 

Chamber ambassador Brian Forrest, representing Mobile Freedom and Forrest Cards, said he came out to the event in order to support the Chamber and a local business. 

“It is cool to have these kinds of events as the industry is becoming more popular,” he said. 



Medicinal marijuana user Richard Charter believes it is beneficial to have the community come together at events such as this one. It is also a sign of progress, he said.

“It is not as frowned on as much as it was,” he said. 

He also enjoys the fact he can get quality products at a store a few blocks from his house to help him relieve his back and joint pain without using  narcotics or other more expensive painkillers. 

It was a party on Thursday, complete with hamburgers, a rock band, a glass blower making pipes and a mechanical bull. 

Paine and her husband opened Old Toby two years ago on April 20, so the party was also an anniversary, she said. It was their goal to open on 4/20, but they would have been happy to open on any day. They got their business license and opened six days later.

“The city of Chehalis gave us a wonderful gift, on our wedding anniversary no less,” Paine said. “Truly the city has been very supportive.”

Since opening, business has been good, Paine said. 

The number 420 has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary. 

There are several rumored origin stories for the unofficial holiday, but the Oxford English Dictionary gives the credit to a group of California high school students who adopted the term while searching for a marijuana field in the 1970s, according to The Spokesman-Review.