420 is a number associated
with the cannabis culture. People who use marijuana sometimes refer
to their subculture as 420 or smoke at 4:20pm in the day. Some use
April 20th, or 4/20 as a day to honor the medicinal herb.
The beginning of the number to represent smoking marijuana has many
urban legends and the origins remain elusive.
The most popular legend is
one that Steve Hagar made famous. He was a writer for the marijuana
magazine High Times. The story goes that a group of students
from San Rafael High School in 1971 were in search of a hidden
marijuana grow. The teenagers used to hang out by a wall outside
their school and called themselves the “Waldos”. They
would meet at 4:20pm every day by the Louis Pasteur statue at the
school. From there they would go on their quest to find the hidden
marijuana grow.
Many believe that the 420
began with the Grateful Dead following using 4:20 as their main time
to smoke. The following does not claim to be the origin of the 420
popularity. The Grateful Dead tour did bring the trend to many
communities and is one of the main reasons it grew into such
popularity.
Some believe 420 is the
police code for possession of marijuana. Each municipality and state
have their own set of laws and guidelines, none with 420 being the
code for possession. One exception is with California Senate Bill
420 that sets guidelines for possession. This bill was enacted after
the popularity of the number association.
Their are numerous other
theories that are untrue. The Grateful Dead did NOT stay only in
hotel rooms with the number 420. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim
Morrison did NOT die on April 20th. And there are NOT 420
chemical compounds in marijuana, there are only 315 known.
The origins of the number
420 is elusive to the association of marijuana. The popularity can
be seen in the widespread use of the number. For instance the
Colorado Department of Transportation had a problem of continuously
stolen signposts on mile 420 of I-70 east of Denver. To stop the
thievery they have replaced it with mile post 419.99.
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