50 years of 420

To commemorate the occasion, we thought we'd share the story of 420.

In 1971, five high school students in San Rafael, California, gathered everyday at “4:20” in connection with a plan to search for an abandoned cannabis crop, based on a treasure map made by the grower.

Calling themselves the Waldos, because their typical hang-out spot “was a wall outside the school”, near the Louis Pasteur statue on the grounds of San Rafael High as their meeting place, and 4:20pm as their meeting time.

Steven Hager of High Times Magazine was responsible for popularizing the story of the Waldos. The first High Times mention of 4:20 smoking and a 4/20 holiday appeared in May 1991, and the connection to the Waldos appeared in December 1998.

Hager attributed the early spread of the phrase to Dead Heads after “Waldo” Reddix became a roadie for the Grateful Dead’s bassist, Phil Lesh and called for 4:20pm to be the socially accepted hour of the day to consume cannabis.

Whether the story of the origins of 420 is real or not, it's an epic piece of cannabis folklore that I hope continues to live on for another 50yrs.