The REAL history of 4/20
When you ask the average person why 4/20 is the date of celebration for pot, you typically get answers along the lines of “It’s Bob Marley’s Birthday” Or “It’s Hitler’s death date”.. But did you know that Bob Marley’s birthday is actually February 6th? And Hitler died on April 30th. The origins of 4/20 are significantly more dynamic than that.
As with all legendary things, it became more established in the 70’s. When cannabis culture was still in its infancy. While the beatniks really helped kick off marijuana use in the 60’s, it wasn’t until the 70’s that it became more celebrated in the media. Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan and Neil Young all released some of the most iconic stoner songs of the century. Hippies were rampant, and rockers were getting stoned and playing guitar. Cheech and Chong were releasing the most epic of comedy sketches, and movies about the lifestyles of the stoners.
In 1971 five high school students in San Rafael coined the term “420”. They had a treasure map for some abandoned cannabis crops, and would meet after school at (you guessed it) 4:20pm.. to try and find the crops. After many failed attempts to locate the sought-after crops, they started using the phrase to refer to their time to hang out and get high. They often used the code “420” to refer to smoking pot.
Steven Hager of the magazine High Times has been accredited with popularizing the story of these five teens referred to as "The Waldo’s”. Hager has indicated that the term 420 gained traction thanks to the Grateful Dead and the Deadheads. Turns out one of the OG Waldo’s became a roadie for the Grateful Dead’s bassist-and BAM! 420 started to become a popular phrase, and time to get stoned.
420 has been altered to 4/20 to indicate the date April 20th, when many marijuana activists gather to try and promote education and the legalization of marijuana. Rallies have been held on April 20th in many cities, for many years. The first 420 rally in Vancouver was held in 1994. As more and more countries and states start to legalize the use of recreational cannabis we can attribute the success of this turn around to the many rallies that were held.
So, this 4/20 raise a joint, crank some Sabbath and thank those teens that coined the term that created this glorious “holiday”.
