Dash Paine, left, co-owner of Old Toby, helps Don Allen pick out the right strain of marijuana on Monday afternoon at the Chehalis store. Paine, along with his wife, Jerrie, held their store's grand opening on Monday.
Dash Paine, right, co-owner of Old Toby, holds up a package containing marijuana at the store on Monday afternoon in Chehalis.
Dash Paine, center, co-owner of Old Toby, and his wife, Jerrie, help customers at the store on Monday afternoon in Chehalis.
Dash Paine, co-owner of Old Toby, helps a customer at the store on Monday afternoon in Chehalis.
Dash Paine, right, co-owner of Old Toby, points to a white board with prices for different types of marijuana products at the store on Monday afternoon in Chehalis.
Lewis County’s first recreational marijuana business opened on Monday in Chehalis.
Old Toby, located on State Street, had a “quiet grand opening” on the counter-culture holiday for smoking pot, April 20, normally shortened to 4/20 by those who celebrate it.
Co-owner Jerrie Paine, who said she grew up in a “very Christian household,” said she wanted to be a part of the industry after seeing it improve the life of a relative suffering from cancer.
“I thought this egg’s gotta crack and I want to be a part of it,” she said. “I’m also very principled. We should have the freedom to do with our bodies whatever we want to do with them.”
Some residents might be frustrated that Chehalis has gone to pot, but it’s hardly the first locality to do so since marijuana became legal in 2012.
According to Brian Smith, communications director for the Washington State Liquor Control Board, 140 out of 334 proposed stores have been licensed around the state. As of April, sales in the industry are averaging about $1 million per day. Last year, $148.6 million worth of legal marijuana was sold, bringing $37.15 million in excise taxes alone.
Dash Paine, Jerrie’s husband, said his reasoning to open a retail store was a “50-50” split between business and a moral cause.
“Being in the newest business and selling a product everyone wants is a great business decision,” he said. “But also those draconian laws that have people serving time… hopefully this will be a step against those.”
Dash said he “doesn’t want to be too militant” but he is troubled by the federal government’s consideration of marijuana as a drug as dangerous as heroin or LSD.
He argues alcohol, which was made illegal at the turn of the century for it’s destructive characteristics but was again legalized after social pressure, is more destructive to people’s lives than marijuana.
“I understand wanting to keep your kids away from dangerous chemicals ... But we still have plenty of parents telling their kids to grab them a beer or make them cocktails,” he said.
Just as tobacco consumers have stepped away from cigarettes and snuff and toward vaporizers and e-cigarettes, marijuana has come a long way since bong rips and pot brownies, he said.
While the plant products are still around, today’s consumer can choose between oils, waxes and other concentrates that are made almost entirely with THC, the primary psychoactive compound in marijuana.
Old Toby’s products run the gamut from flowers to cookies and individual THC capsules produced by Southwest Washington growers from Lacey, Tenino and Raymond.
The store quickly sold out of its holiday special, one-gram bags for $4.20. Overall, a gram of marijuana is selling at the store for around $20, pre-rolled gram joints are selling for $15 and the edibles and concentrates are selling between $10 and $70.
The shop’s decor is a long way from finished. Thanks to a skylight and big windows, sunlight pours into the lofty space, but aside from the display cases, there is little in terms of decoration.
The Paines say in coming weeks they will hang posters from their supplying farms and have a mural of a wizard smoking a pipe with “Old Toby” painted on a wall.
Marijuana culture is rich with images of gnomes, tie-dye clothes and reggae music,. The Paines say they largely want to stay away from the stereotypes and cater to a broader group.
“I did intentionally want this environment to be more nondescript than a stereotypical pot shop,” says Jerrie, who is a lawyer. “We want people to realize this is not like smoking crack behind … wherever people go to smoke crack, but it’s like when you walk into a wine store. It’s different than a package (liquor) store.”
