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Wednesday,March31,2021
Columbia Gorge News
www.columbiagorgenews.com
Remembering Margie Lemberger: Pioneer
of the recreational cannabis industry
Jacob Bertram
■ By Columbia
Gorge News
N
OT MANY PEOPLE
would accept a
collection of petrified
wood as a down payment
on a fifth wheel trailer, but
that is just the kind of thing
the late entrepreneur Margie
Lemberger would do for the
people she cared most deeply
about.
“It was just a way to help
somebody. This was what
that they had at the time,
it was a thing of value and
she didn’t want them to feel
like she was giving them a
handout,” said James Szubski,
Margie’s son-in-law. James
explained that the collection
had been handed down in
the buyer’s family, “and so
it was a significant thing for
them to part with. And so
Margie accepted, and I think
she gave a lot of it back in the
end.”
Margie especially cared
and provided for the
employees of the business
she opened back in 2014,
Margie’s Pot Shop, and it
shows through the stories
James shared.
“It’s story after story like
that. Whenever she could,
she helped folks out,” James
said.
James has been visiting
the Columbia River Gorge
from his home in the Seattle
area this past week, meeting
Margie’s employees and
clearing up her estate, follow-
ing her passing on March 3.
After speaking with the dozen
or so employed by Margie’s
Pot Shop and hearing the sto-
ries about his mother-in-law,
James said he walked away
with a reinforced sentiment
that Margie had a true heart
of gold.
“She was a magical woman
in many, many ways. And
that word, more than any
other, describes her,” James
said.
James told another story
about how an employee
of Margie’s had been in a
domestic violence situation,
“and she gave that women
and her children refuge until
they could get back on her
feet again.”
One time, an employee
got into a shady deal over a
used car. The employee had
bought the car from a private
seller. “The guy said, ‘Well
you pay me, and I’ll pay the
bank,’ and she paid him,
and he never paid the bank,”
James said.
“Well, Margie got wind of
that and she went, and she
bought the car, and took care
of the whole thing, and then
made no-interest payments
for this young lady that she
dearly loved. And that’s the
one story I keep hearing
again and again,” said James.
Margie had grown such
positive relationships with
the people who worked
beside her that many of her
employees were there at her
deathbed around her when
she passed, James said, due
to cancer at the age of 72.
Even as she was getting
sick, James said Margie
spent her days building the
business, which has thrived
in the Bingen location since
its opening in 2014. She had
been getting plans together
to open a second business,
Binge Mart, next door.
“For me, I just kept coming
back to what a magical thing
she created here,” James said.
Margie had grown from
humble roots. Born to dairy
farmers Nov. 2, 1948, in Los
Angeles, California and "right
after milking was done,"
Margie’s mom would often
say she was born smiling. She
grew up with 10 brothers and
sisters and shared a bed with
her eight sisters.
Margie married her first
husband, Jerry, and from
their relationship came two
children: Loren and James’
wife, Jill. The blossoming
family spent time in the
Seattle area while Jerry
worked for Boeing. The
couple would later divorce,
and Margie found work as
a pharmacist following her
departure from the Navy
around the Seattle area, on
a reservation in Arizona and
later in Yakima.
Margie remarried later
and she divorced that person
too, James said. According to
James, “She really didn’t ever
feel like she needed a man;
and in fact, most of the men
in her life, she took care of
them.”
Near the end of the '80s,
Margie enlisted in the Navy.
As a sailor, Margie received
training to become a phar-
macist, a profession she
would follow for decades up
until she opened her recre-
ational marijuana store here
in the Gorge. Margie spent
five years in the Navy and
was honorably discharged in
1994.
James said she was a great
pharmacist. “She had a very
strong healer streak in her,”
said James.
“Many people would come
to her and ask her questions,
and she’d often be advising
doctors and correcting doc-
tors on their prescriptions,
because she was very aware
of how drugs interact and
which ones are more appro-
priate,” James said.
At Margie’s Pot Shop,
there is one specific product
that people started calling
“Margie’s Medicine,” James
said, because it was her
favorite, but she knew that
it was the most healing, and
most calming to folks.
“Whenever she could,
she was soothing to people,
and she also was magical,
in that things that no one
thought could happen would
happen when Margie was
around,” said James. “She
was non-judgmental, and
accepting of everyone, and
willing to offer that helping
hand and create these magi-
cal moments for folks.”
About the time her chil-
dren were grown and out of
the house, James said, Margie
adopted a baby girl who
struggled with complications
stemming from the mother’s
drug use during pregnancy.
Krista then became Margie’s
third child, whom she took
care of and “looked after to
her dying day,” James said.
While in Yakima, Margie
began making trips down the
Gorge to find fishing spots.
She loved to fish, James re-
membered, so much so that
she fell in love with the Gorge
and its communities. Her
love of fishing, as well as the
communities’ vicinity to trav-
elers and tourists were two
main factors which led her to
open Margie’s Pot Shop right
here in Bingen.
“Being a pharmacist, she
was really keenly aware of the
changing marijuana laws, on
the medical side and then
on the recreational side,”
James said. “Once those laws
changed and they started
opening up to a lot of other
folks, because Margie had so
much experience working
with controlled substances,
she was the very first person
in Washington state to get
a recreational marijuana
license.”
James said he believes
Margie was the first recre-
ational pot shop to open
up west of the Rockies,
and while a few shops in
Colorado beat her to the
punch due to the timing of
the marijuana laws being
passed that year, Margie’s Pot
Shop was absolutely one of
the first recreational shops to
open up on the entire west
coast.
“This is a woman who
is basically a single mom
and she is doing this all on
her own. She is navigating
this complex, brand new
field of all the regulations
and everything, and they’re
making them up as they go
and she’s jumping through
every hoop. She’s got a signif-
icant amount of money that
she put down to make this
happen,” James said. “It just
boggles my mind the amount
of willpower and smarts and
savvy, and you know, figuring
out how to make things work
that no one had ever done
before,” James said.
A White Salmon Enterprise
article dated July 10, 2014
captured Margie’s feelings
the same week her shop
opened. Margie was quoted
as saying, “I’ve always be-
lieved that pot should be le-
gal because I think we waste
so much money putting peo-
ple in jail over pot. It’s just not
smart to waste all that money
over all these people who get
10 years in jail for smoking or
selling pot.”
Margie discussed in the
2014 article what the experi-
ence had been like for a new
recreational cannabis owner.
She said, “I had an older gen-
tleman stop who wanted to
buy just one joint because he
never tried it before. He was
from Chicago and was really
excited because it’s going to
be legal here. So many peo-
ple have stopped, but that’s
my favorite.”
After nearly seven years
of working in the marijuana
industry, Margie had come
to build up her savings and
was able to spend generously
on herself and on the people
around. James said one of her
favorite things was jewelry,
because it reminded her of
her humble roots and how
hard she worked to build
a name and a business for
herself.
She had all kinds of pas-
sions, like playing mobile
video games, and she spent a
lot of time on the water. Every
so often the couple would
receive a picture from Margie
showing off her freshest catch
of the morning.
James called her a healer
many times. He said that “in
her heart, she really believed
marijuana could help people.
And both with anxiety issues
and pain relief and other
things. And as a pharmacist,
it is not just like ‘oh this is
cool and fun.’ It’s like, no this
is legitimate chemistry, and
it’s helping people.”
James said charitable
donations are welcome in
Margie’s name to Washington
Gorge Action Programs at
www.WAGAP.org/donate.
James also requested leaving
a tip at Margie’s Pot Shop
for the employees who were
affected by the sudden loss.
Margie Lemberger dons merchandise at a retailer convention. The owner of Margie's Pot Shop in
Bingen, Margie passed away March 3 at her home in town.
Contributed photo
What's Next for
Margie’s Pot Shop?
James told Columbia
Gorge News that he and Jill
are taking over the business,
effective last Thursday.
The decision was sudden,
much like Margie’s passing,
but James said it was the right
thing for them to do.
“I feel like I’m coming
home in a lot of ways,” said
James. Having spent years
building a career in market-
ing, he left the industry and
has since wrote a couple
books and trained to perform
search and rescue activities.
When COVID-19 hit, James
became a contact tracer.
Since then, he said he has not
felt the need to return so he
is viewing this as an oppor-
tunity for him and Jill to start
their next adventure.
James said he and Jill
also decided to move to the
area and become members
of the Gorge community.
There are many hurdles in
the way before they are fully
transitioned, but he said he is
excited, and honored, to take
these next steps.
“It’s really important to
me that I am engaged with
the others who are running
businesses, and with the
mayor and the police, and all
the folks that a business like
this impacts,” James said. “So
I really look forward to meet-
ing folks and getting engaged
with the community. Margie
was a big part of it, and I
would never be able to fill her
shoes but I certainly want to
start taking the first steps.”
“My wife and I understand
that a cannabis business run
improperly can be a blight on
the community, and that is
something that we are going
to strive to never be,” said
James. “We want this to be a
place where all walks of life
are accepted.”
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