If you’ve ever wondered how April 20 became a holiday celebrating marijuana, you’ve come to the right place.

Origin Myths

There are several debunked myths about the origin of the term “420,” which morphed into 4/20 and thus April 20, a day for smoking pot at 4:20 pm.

• 420 was a police radio code for marijuana smoking in progress
• 420 was a California penal code relating to marijuana
• 420 was taken from the Bob Dylan song “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” (12 x 35 = 420)
• April 20 was Hitler’s birthday
• 4:20 is teatime in Holland
• there are 420 active chemicals in marijuana
• in the 1939 short story “In the Walls of Eryx” by H.P. Lovecraft and Kenneth Sterling, “curious mirage-plants” get the narrator high at about 4:20

The Waldos

The truth behind the term “420” is that it originated with a group of students at San Rafael High School near San Francisco, California (Steve Capper, Dave Reddix, Jeffrey Noel, Larry Schwartz, and Mark Gravich). They called themselves the Waldos (because they hung out by a wall outside the school) and used to meet after sports practice to smoke pot. When they heard that there was a cannabis plant near the Coast Guard Station that was no longer being tended they agreed to meet at 4:20 at the statue of Louis Pasteur to go hunting for it. The codeword “420-Louis” was soon shortened to “420.” They never did find the marijuana patch, but they continued using the term to refer to smoking pot. This was in the fall of 1971.

The Grateful Dead

One of the Waldos had a brother who was friends with the bassist of the psychedelic rock band the Grateful Dead. The Waldos began hanging out at Grateful Dead rehearsals and parties, smoking pot and spreading the term “420.” The Grateful Dead toured around the world in the 1970s and 80s and the term spread in their subculture, a huge fan base known as Deadheads.

High Times

In 1990 Steven Bloom, a reporter for High Times (the monthly magazine of marijuana-using counterculture) was handed a flyer at a Grateful Dead concert. It read, “We are going to meet at 4:20 on 4/20 for 420-ing in Marin County at the Bolinas Ridge sunset spot on Mt. Tamalpais.” The flyer also included the myth of the police code 420, which has since been debunked. Bloom reprinted the flyer in the May 1991 issue of High Times. He credits the writers of the flyer with turning April 20 into an annual gathering of pot smokers. By the early 1990s “420” was appearing in signs and park benches in places far from California. In 1997 the Waldos got in touch with High Times to clarify their role in coining “420.” They even have proof in the form of postmarked letters and a newspaper clipping all using the term.

Legalization

In the 1970s 4/20 was part of a small counterculture where marijuana was a symbol of protest. Now that marijuana is becoming legal in many places, it looks like 4/20 may become commercialized (as alcohol companies have done with St. Patrick’s Day).

I hope you enjoyed this brief look at 4/20. I was particularly interested in learning how a term could spread from five students to an international holiday in a few decades.

Sources

• “4/20, the marijuana holiday, explained” by German Lopez via Vox
• “420 Meaning: The True Story Of How April 20 Became ‘Weed Day'” by Ryan Grim via HuffPost
• “Here’s the Real Reason We Associate 420 With Weed” by Olivia B. Waxman via Time
• “The Hazy History of ‘420’” by Brynn Holland via History.com