Seattle –

Saturday, April 20, is the feast of cannabis culture. At 4:20 p.m., college students gather in smoke-filled campus courtyards and cannabis stores in legal marijuana states to thank customers with discounts.

This year’s edition offers activists a chance to reflect on how far their movement has come, with nearly half of states and the nation’s capital now allowing recreational marijuana use. Many states have enacted “social equity” measures to help communities of color most harmed by the war on drugs reap financial benefits from legalization. The White House has also shown an openness to marijuana reform.

Here is the history of 4/20:

Why 4/20?

This date, and the origins of the term “420”, have long been obscure. Some claim it refers to police marijuana possession regulations, or that it derives from Bob Dylan’s “Rainy Day Woman No. 12 and No. 35,” whose refrain is “Everybody’s Gotta Get Stoned.” ——420 is 12 times 35.

But the common explanation is that it started in the 1970s with a group of bell-bottomed buddies from San Rafael High School in Marin County, California, north of San Francisco, who called themselves “The Waldos.” The story goes that a friend’s brother was worried about getting busted for growing a patch of marijuana in the woods near Point Reyes, so he drew a map and allowed the teens to harvest the marijuana.

In the fall of 1971, at 4:20 p.m., just after school and football practice, everyone would gather in front of a statue of school chemist Louis Pasteur, smoke a joint, and then go out to hunt for weed. They never found it, but their personal dictionary — “420 Louie,” later just “420” — would take on a life of its own.

The Waldos saved postmarked letters and other artifacts mentioning “420” from the 1970s, which they now keep in a bank vault, and when the Oxford English Dictionary added the term in 2017, it Some of these documents are cited as being the earliest recorded uses.

How is 420 spread?

One of the Waldo brothers was a close friend of Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, Lesh told The Huffington Post (now The Huffington Post) Confirm this. The Waldos began hanging out in band circles, and the slang spread.

Fast forward to the early 1990s: Steve Bloom, a reporter for cannabis magazine High Times, was attending a Dead show when he received a flyer urging people to “April 20 at 4:20 p.m. The 420-ing was held in Marin County, located at Sunset Point on Bolinas Ridge in Mount Tamalpais. ” High Times published it.

“This is a phenomenon,” Steve Capper, 69, a member of the Waldo family, told The Associated Press. “Most things die within a few years, but this is just going to keep going. There’s not going to be a day where someone says, ‘Okay, cannabis New Year’s is June 23 now.’”

Although the Waldos invented the term, the people responsible for handing out flyers at the Dead Show and effectively turning 4/20 into a festival remain unknown.

How to celebrate?

And of course there are weeds.

Some celebrations are larger than others: Denver’s Mile High 420 Festival, for example, typically draws thousands of people and describes itself as the world’s largest free 4/20 event. Hippie Hill in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park also drew large crowds, but this year’s party was canceled, with organizers citing a lack of financial sponsorship and city budget cuts.

The University Courtyard and State Capitol Lawn are also known for hosting 4/20 celebrations, of which the University of Colorado Boulder is historically one of the largest, although administrators have banned the annual smoking event more than a decade ago. , this situation is less serious.

A few breweries are making 420-themed beers without any frills, including Atlanta’s SweetWater Brewing, which is hosting the 420 Music Festival this weekend and whose founders are from the University of Colorado.

Lagunitas Brewing in Petaluma, Calif., partners with the creator of the term to release “Waldos’ Special Ale” every April 20. The Waldos will be there this Saturday to taste the beers, and they picked hops that “smell and taste like the dankest marijuana,” Dave Reddix, a Waldo couple, said via email .

4/20 has also become a major event in the industry, with vendors gathering together to try out each other’s products.

politics

The number of states that allow recreational marijuana has grown to 24 following the success of recent legalization campaigns in Ohio, Minnesota and Delaware. Fourteen more states allow its use for medical purposes, including Kentucky, where medical marijuana legislation passed last year is set to take effect in 2025. Other states only allow the use of low-THC (marijuana’s main psychoactive component) products to treat certain medical conditions.

But marijuana remains illegal under federal law. It is listed on Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act along with drugs like heroin, meaning it has no federally recognized medical use and has a high potential for abuse.

However, the Biden administration has taken some cannabis reform measures. The president pardoned thousands of people convicted of “simple possession” of federal lands and the District of Columbia.

The Department of Health and Human Services last year recommended that the Drug Enforcement Administration reclassify marijuana to Schedule III, which would confirm its medical use under federal law.

According to a Gallup poll last fall, 70% of adults supported legalization, the highest level recorded by the polling firm to date and more than double the roughly 30% support in 2000.

Vivian McPeak, who helped found the Seattle Cannabis Festival more than three decades ago, reflects on how far the cannabis industry has grown in his lifetime.

“It’s a surreal feeling to drive by a store selling marijuana,” he said. “A lot of people laughed at us and said, ‘This will never happen.’”

What does it mean?

McPeak describes 4/20 these days as a “mixed bag.” He said that despite the progress of the legalization movement, many small growers are still struggling to compete with large producers and many Americans are still in prison for marijuana convictions.

“We can celebrate the victories we have achieved, and we can strategize and organize to further the cause,” he said. “While some may feel complacent, we still have work to do. We must continue to burn shoe leather until we get everyone out of jail.”

For the Waldos, 4/20 means, above all else, good times.

“We are apolitical. We are jokers,” Kapoor said. “But there was a time that we can’t forget, when it was secretive and sneaky. … The energy of that era was more intense and in a way more exciting.

“I’m not saying it’s all good — it’s not good that they’re putting people in jail,” he continued. “You don’t want to go back there.”