The origin of 420
The Origin of 420: The Origin of 420
The name 420 is related to the date itself, April 20th. You don’t have to be a pilot to know that April 20 is considered by many to be a national holiday for cannabis culture. Some have suggested that the date comes from code for "smoking marijuana" among police officers, while others believe it has something to do with April 20 being the birthday of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. But the most believable story about why April 20 became a holiday has nothing to do with either.
The consensus is that it started with a group of baggy-jean buddies at San Rafael High School in California who called themselves the "Waldos." The story goes that a friend's brother, fearful of being arrested for growing marijuana in the woods of Point Reyes, drew a map and allowed the teens to harvest the crop.
Did 420 start with "Waldos"?
This seems to be the most likely origin of the 420 celebrations - although no one is sure.
Several California historians from the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas share a story about a group of marijuana enthusiasts who called themselves the "Waldos," five high school students in San Rafael, Marin County, in the 1970s. born. They are Steve Capper, Dave Riddicks, Jeffrey Knoll, Larry Schwartz and Mark Gravich. The surrounding community is home to fans of the loyal band the Grateful Dead, many of whom enjoy smoking marijuana and listening to music.
According to Waldos' website, in the fall of 1971, Capper received a marijuana map leading to the Point Reyes Peninsula. The map was given to him by a friend whose brother was a member of the U.S. Coast Guard and was growing marijuana. The Coast Guardsman feared he would be caught, so he agreed to the harvest request. The Waldos agreed to meet at 4:20 p.m. in front of the statue of chemist Louis Pasteur on the campus of San Rafael High School. They met, smoked marijuana, and then drove out to find the patch. Their meeting time turned out not to be very complicated. School ends around 3:00 PM, followed by gym practice, then around 4:20. And the social circumstances that led to this ritual are likely familiar to many high school students.
Over the next few days, the Waldos would use the phrase '420 Louie™' to remind each other of after-school exploration activities. They eventually dropped the "Louie" part and just said "420" to refer to marijuana. Initially, "420" was just the Waldos' secret slang - their own private joke - however, it was picked up by others and passed from one generation to another, from one city to another, from one spread from country to country, spread widely across all media across the globe over decades.
Their website features photos of now-grown friends who claim to be the documented originators of 420, claiming to have multiple physical evidence of the word's earliest use, including a reference to 420 in a postmarked letter from the 1970s. .
How did 420 get out?
This time stamp quickly became a simplified representation of smoking marijuana, eventually spreading beyond California. Communicator? None other than the Grateful Dead.
Riddicks' brother helped him find a job as a roadman with Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, and the term "420" became popular in Deadhead circles. The legend goes that on December 28, 1990, the Deadheads in Oakland handed out flyers inviting people to smoke "420" on April 20 at 4:20 pm. One of the flyers was signed by Steve Bloom. ) got it, he's a former reporter for High Times magazine. The following year, the popular cannabis publication published that flyer, and a new celebration was born. In 1998, the publication recognized "Waldos" as the "inventor" of the 420.
Their story has also been verified by many historians, news organizations, and even Snopes.com, and is generally considered to be the true origin story of the 420.
Follow-up
In 2017, Waldos still lived in Marin and Sonoma counties in northern California, and they remained good friends. TIME spoke with Riddicks, now a documentary filmmaker and former CNN photojournalist, and Carper, who runs a business working with staffing agencies, to learn more about the history of 420 .
They say a lot has changed in the cannabis world between 1971 and 2017 — and not only that, in their experience, today's cannabis is much stronger than it was before.
Mainstream America's view of marijuana smokers has changed a lot since they started celebrating April 20, Carper said, because people are more accepting that those who love marijuana can be healthy and smart people. He said his business partners sometimes worry that Carper's publicity related to 420 could be bad for business. But in reality, at the meetings he attended, those aware of the connection were more likely to ask for a photo than to judge him. (As for high school, "When I smoked weed, I did two years of classes in one year and got straight A's," he says.) Greater acceptance of marijuana's medical uses also changed perceptions of the drug Discussion; Reddicks' wife uses cannabinoids to treat migraines, which he says seem to work. Clearly, the spread of the legalization movement has made marijuana more public than before — "It's legal and not as easy to land in jail as it used to be," Carper said.
As for their place in cannabis history, they love seeing "420" pop up in pop culture — like in "The Secret Service," where some clocks are set to 4:20, or the number 420 in "The Time Machine." hotel room — and hope their coded contribution to cannabis culture will give enthusiasts celebrating the day a bit of the "private joke quality" and "outlaw fraternity" feel they experienced growing up That way, their habits at the time were absolutely underground.
“Legalization is happening so fast now that you have to stand on the sidelines and think this is so weird,” Carper said. "It's been quite a journey."
