Some claimed 420 referred to a police code for marijuana possession or that it arose from Bob Dylan’s “Rainy Day Women No. 12 & 35,' with its refrain of “Everybody must get stoned' — 420 being the product of 12 times 35.
Thursday marks marijuana culture’s high holiday, 4/20, when cannabis fans gather in clouds of smoke at music festivals, celebrate with all-you-can-deals on chicken wings and other munchies, and take advantage of pot-shop discounts in legal weed states.
During fall 1971, at 4:20 p.m., just after classes and football practice, the group would meet up at the school’s statue of chemist Louis Pasteur, smoke a joint and head out to search for the weed patch. They never did find it, but their private lexicon — "420 Louie" and later just "420″ — would take on a life of its own.
"It’s a phenomenon," one of the Waldos, Steve Capper, once reflected. "Most things die within a couple years, but this just goes on and on. It’s not like someday somebody’s going to say, ‘OK, Cannabis New Year’s is on June 23rd now.’"Bloom, who became editor-in-chief of Freedom Leaf Magazine, noted in a 2017 interview that while the Waldos came up with the term, the people who made the flier — and effectively turned 4/20 into a holiday — remain unknown.With weed, naturally.
Lagunitas Brewing in Petaluma, California, releases its "Waldos’ Special Ale" every year on 4/20 in honor of the term’s coiners.There has been a proliferation of legal marijuana measures since Washington and Colorado in 2012 became the first states to legalize the recreational use of cannabis by adults. Some 21 states have now approved it. Sales just began in Missouri, are expected to begin in July in Maryland and totaled $300 million in the first year of New Mexico’s program.
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