420 Meaning: The True Story Of How April 20 Became 'Weed Day'

[tridim]

Via Huffpost

Warren Haynes, the Allman Brothers Band guitarist, routinely plays with the surviving members of the Grateful Dead, now touring as The Dead. He's just finished a Dead show in Washington, D.C. and gets a pop quiz from the Huffington Post.

Where does 420 come from?

He pauses and thinks, hands on his side. "I don't know the real origin. I know myths and rumors," he says. "I'm really confused about the first time I heard it. It was like a police code for smoking in progress or something. What's the real story?"

Depending on who you ask, or their state of inebriation, there are as many varieties of answers as strains of medical bud in California. It's the number of active chemicals in marijuana. It's teatime in Holland. It has something to do with Hitler's birthday. It's those numbers in that Bob Dylan song multiplied.

The origin of the term 420, celebrated around the world by pot smokers every April 20th, has long been obscured by the clouded memories of the folks who made it a phenomenon.

snip

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/20/420-meaning-the-true-stor_n_543854.html

[Blue_In_AK]

1. We stumbled into a 420 party in progress in Golden Gate Park

a couple of years ago when we were vacationing in San Francisco. It hadn't even occurred to me what day it was or the time, but as if by magic at 4:20 p.m. the crowds appeared, the drumming and dancing began and the air became cloudy and aromatic with smoke. It was great. :hippie:

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

25. That happens every day in GG park. n/t

[Blue_In_AK]

26. That's probably very true.

I know it was true back in 1969-70 when I used to hang out there a lot. I'm glad to hear things haven't changed much. :)

[Richardo]

2. God, who gives a shit, really?

Smoke it if you got it and STFU about it.

If weed is THAT important a focus in your life, you might want to reflect on your priorities a bit.

[Blue_In_AK]

3. Kind of cranky this morning, aren't you?

[Caliman73]

5. He hasn't smoked his weed yet

:rofl:

[Richardo]

7. Just don't like proselytizers of any stripe.

[Fumesucker]

14. Even those who just don't want to be locked up for a relatively harmless habit? n/t

[Richardo]

16. Yes.

Any stripe.

[Fumesucker]

18. So no one can advocate for anything at all in your world?

Wow, that's pretty harsh, I guess you think things are absolutely perfect right now?

[Richardo]

19. Things must be pretty good if we're down to whatever number weed is on the list....

If it's in your top 10 of things that need to be addressed, you must have it pretty good.

[Fumesucker]

24. Eh, some people need it as medicine for things like nausea from chemo and aids..

Others have loved ones in prison over it.

But clearly you don't give a damn about those concerns..

[dbmk]

27. So, whats number 1

and whats number 2?

[Goblinmonger]

23. Even those who proselytize about how bad proselytizing is?

:evilgrin:

[devilgrrl]

33. +1

eom

[Gman2]

4. I would die without it. Slowly. Lungs would fill, lose voice, cant breathe.

[robdogbucky]

8. Sounds like

one of the many conditions (asthma?) that cannabis can alleviate.

Just like the migraine sufferer and the arthritic clerk and the chemo patients that I have known.

If only the research, tests and experiments were allowed to happen we could discover all the possibilities of this natural plant.

If it were legalized that could happen.

And we may even uncover the true origin of 420.


Read and learn:

http://www.taxcannabis.org/index.php/pages/initiative/

[tridim]

6. Obviously not you.

Honestly I don't give much of a shit either, but it is 4/20 and the vast majority of people (including myself) are misinformed about the term "420".

This article finally answers the question.

[Richardo]

10. They ran the same article last year

I guess the stoners either forgot or weren't paying attention.

[tridim]

17. Cannabis only affects short-term memory

Plenty of articles have been posted on that subject, and it's an absolute OUTRAGE that you didn't read them when they were posted. :eyes:

[comrade snarky]

9. God forbid anyone be curious about the origin of a common term

All those wasted lives going into producing the O.E.D. Why bother right?

[Richardo]

13. I was curious about it too - that's why I read the article last year.

[comrade snarky]

15. And I didnt see it

Guess that cancels you out.

Did you get this upset when HufPo re-ran "In Defense of Pottersville" every Christmas?

[mike_c]

11. you obviously don't live where I live....

Pot is the backbone of life on California's North Coast. Every local economy here depends upon it utterly. Every restaurant, car dealer, and grocery store. Every bank. Every church.

Reflect on our priorities? Marijuana is a major priority here.

It's also a central component in my personal life. I smoke it daily, usually more than once. It's healthful. My SO has been off of SSRIs ever since she moved here and began regular pot smoking. It's relaxing, does not screw your health or your minute-to-minute living like alcohol does, it makes my experience of life more enjoyable. Those are all worthwhile priorities, IMO.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[tammywammy]

20. Apparently you do, you clicked on the thread n/t

[Bluenorthwest]

21. this story is not about what you call 'weed'

it is about language, and the development of a major form of what people who say 'weed' would call 'slang'. It is a story about how a frequently used term of speech came to be. The term of speech refers to marijuana smoking. The story, however is about the words, not the smoke.

[snooper2]

22. You don't pray to the Weed God every morning...

Damn you to hell- Damn you-

You will burn in a flaming inferno for all of eternity if you don't repent now and :smoke:


You better check your priorities unless you look forward to damnation because the Weed God will put you down. You hear me! She will put you down :rofl:

[Romulox]

It's always gratifying when the prohibitions out themselves as incoherent.

Logic isn't your thing, is it? :hi:

[krabigirl]

31. Um, for many medical patients, yeah it's a pretty big focus.

Especially when it helps you from continually puking after having chemo.

[roody]

34. You do---you read the post and replied.

[Lochloosa]

28. Just saw Warren this weekend. And the Allman Brothers..and Gov't Mule...and Wide Spread Panic..and.

:hippie: It was fun....

[conscious evolution]

29. waaaa

neeeee!

[Lochloosa]

37. Were you there?

[underpants]

30. 5 kids from San Rafael High went looking for a pot garden

It started with a group of five friends, athletes at San Rafael High School back in 1971, dubbed the Waldos because they hung out near a wall on the edge of campus.

According to Ryan Grim in a report for The Huffington Post, the Waldos were tipped off that a Coast Guard member had a pot garden in the woods near the Point Reyes Peninsula Coast Guard station. Armed with a vague treasure map in hand, they agreed to meet after practice at the school's statue of Louis Pasteur, at exactly 4:20 p.m.

"We'd meet at 4:20 and get in my old '66 Chevy Impala and, of course, we'd smoke instantly and smoke all the way out to Pt. Reyes and smoke the entire time we were out there," an original Waldo member named Steve told Grim. "We did it week after week. We never actually found the patch."

http://culturemap.com/newsdetail/04-20-10-waldos-treasure-maps-and-plenty-of-weed-the-history-of-420/

[Mojeoux]

36. I lived in San Rafael for 20 years. This is the story I've alway heard.

Early years of the Medical Marijuana Movement, the 420 thing was getting bigger and bigger, but when the Americans for Safe Access (ASA) leaders learned the true story of the origin, they were wary of aligning with it.
They were trying to promote medicating seriously ill people (like me) and they worried that the whole "high school kids' time to smoke weed" thing would make the movement look like a joke.
So now, it's all out in the open, but the power of the medicine has outpaced the ridiculousness of the whole 420 thing.

My old friend Dave, rest his soul, helped start the first C. club in our area.
He told me a story about living next door to a kid with MS in the late 80s. The teenager would come over to the hippies' house and get stoned. Then, so his Dad wouldn't know, when he went home the boy had to exaggerate his MS symptoms, because the marijuana made him shake and slur his speech less.
It was the 'just say no' 80s and the man moved his family away.

[chollybocker]

32. Always thought 4:20 referred to the time of day when daily smokers first sparked up.

Like tea time, in Britain.

[cherokeeprogressive]

35. Off work at 4, tokin' at 4:20. I've heard that one...

I put NO stock in any claims made by people that THEY'RE the origin of the link. I've heard HUNDREDS of claims to that effect, and though they all sound convincing, they've diluted the pool so much that it's not possible to distinguish any one from all the others.