420
Universally recognized slang for cannabis culture.
The term “420” originated in 1971 with a group of five high school friends in San Rafael, California, known as “the Waldos.” They used “420” as a code to meet at 4:20 p.m. after school at the statue of Louis Pasteur to search for a rumored abandoned cannabis crop in Point Reyes Forest. Though they never found the crop, the term stuck as slang for cannabis and the act of consuming it. The phrase became popularized in the 1990s after one of the Waldos, who had ties to the Grateful Dead, spread the term within the band’s circle, and a flyer from a Dead show urging people to “meet at 4:20 on 4/20 for 420-ing” was later published in High Times magazine.
Contrary to popular myths, “420” is not a police code, a reference to the number of chemicals in cannabis, or connected to Bob Marley’s birthday.
On this website, the tag “420” is affixed to posts relating to both natural and synthetic cannabinoids.
