The Origin of 4/20
It was an autumn day in 1971. The time was 4:20pm. With a treasure map in hand. five students from San Rafael High School set out on a mission to find an abandoned cannabis crop. Allegedly, the crop was left behind by a U.S. Coast Guard member who could no longer tend to it. These five teens who called themselves “The Waldos.” because they usually hung out by a wall outside the school, would meet every week at the Louis Pasteur statue at 4:20 pm on the grounds of the school prior to searching for the elusive crop. These students, who were all athletes at the school, picked 4:20pm as their meeting time, because that time was right after practice. Originally, they referred to their plan as “4:20 Louis,” but after several failed attempts to find the crop, they shortened the phrase to just “420,” and continued to use the term as code for cannabis and cannabis-related activities.
Ever since then, the phrase “420” has been synonymous with anything related to the plant, whether it be April 20th (4/20), 4:20pm or just plain old “420.” Most often though, it is in reference to the date (April 20th) which has become a non-official holiday celebrated by cannabis enthusiasts every year worldwide.
Grateful Dead Connection
Even though the Waldos deserve credit for creating the term, “420” may not have ever become popularized worldwide if it not for the famous American rock band, The Grafeful Dead. As it turns out, some of the members of the Waldos had connections with the popular band at the time.
Waldo Dave’s older brother (Patrick Reddix) was good friends with Grateful Dead bassist, Phil Lesh. While Patrick helped manage Phil’s side bands, Dave worked the shows and shared the phrase ‘420’ with members of the band.
ADVERTISEMENT
In addition, Waldo Mark’s father, Herman (aka Hy) was a real estate broker who worked with the New Riders of the Purple Sage band, which included several members from the Grateful Dead. Hy found homes for many of the band members in Marin County Hills, California. When the band members were out on tour, the Waldos would house-sit and take care of their pets. And when Hy located a rehearsal storage space for the band, the Waldo brothers would meet there and smoke cannabis together. Later, when the band played at the Winterland Arena in San Francisco every Monday night, Ty would often take the Waldos backstage after the show to indulge.
High Times Magazine
In December of 1990, a reporter for High Times magazine named Steven Bloom first noticed “420” being used at a Grateful Dead Concert in Oakland, California where Bloom was handed a flyer entitled “Deadhead.” While the flyer accurately told the story of how the term ‘420’ started somewhere in San Rafael, California, it falsely claimed ‘420’ was a police code for “Marijuana Smoking in Progress.” Soon thereafter, Steven published an article in High Times about ‘420,’ after which the term really caught on and grew in popularity.
A few years later, some of the Waldos had read the article and contacted High Times to set the record straight and give credit where credit is due. As a result, High Times published a story about the Waldos in 1998 explaining the true origin to this term.
Today 4/20 is more popular than ever before! As more states legalize cannabis either medicinally or recreationally, what was once a lesser-known counter-culture code and event, has now become mainstream and commercialized. For some, this over-commercialization of ‘420’ is contradictory to the true spirit of the term and its related activities. For others though, it is indicative of a society that is becoming increasingly accepting of an invaluable resource that holds many benefits to society yet to be completely uncovered.
ADVERTISEMENT
