LEWISTON — The Lisbon Street business Legal Peaces gave out grab bags Friday to those of legal age. Inside the bag was a marijuana cigarette, a lighter, a piece of candy and a bumper sticker.

The bags went fast. By midafternoon, they were all gone.

Outside the business, a man dressed as a marijuana leaf danced around on the sidewalk, helping to drum up business.

The Legal Peaces store on Center Street in Auburn also offered grab bags. By afternoon, a sign was posted on the door to alert customers the bags were all gone.

The stores also had barbecues and other forms of celebration, which were closed to the media.

Some participants said they consider April 20 a holiday: 4/20 comes but once a year, after all. But why has that number come to represent casual pot use?

It depends on whom you ask.

Some believe the number is based on a police 10-code for marijuana use, although there is no indication that it is or ever was. Others say it represents Adolf Hitler’s birthday, although there’s no explanation of how that relates to marijuana.

Most who have researched the topic believe that 4/20 began as a thing in the early 1970s, when a group of students at a California high school began meeting at 4:20 p.m. every day to light up. High Times wrote an article about the gathering and like that, 4/20 became a part of the marijuana culture.

That’s the theory, anyway.

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