420 means multiple things to different people. Some believe that it is the time of day that is acceptable to smoke. Equivalent to the phrase “it’s 5 o’clock somewhere” that has to do with drinking.
As April is around the corner the marijuana industry is gearing up for their annual holiday. April 20th or 420 is a day where we celebrate marijuana. It was used as a rallying call for legalization but since that has passed it is a day of celebration.
420 blaze it am I right?
But where did 420 come from?
In reality, it started off very much like the breakfast club. 5 friends who just happened to all be athlete would meet up after practice
It started off with a group of high school students in the land of marijuana, or California as some call it. It is a tale of treasure maps and wonders. These California teens learned of a Coast Guard who could no longer tend to his crop. At 4:20 these teens would meet at their spot, Louis Pasteur statue outside their high school. They would asses the map and then smoke some pot and scour the nearby Point Reyes Forest for majestic bush.
The term 420 was then used to discuss the smoking of marijuana, it was a code among the teens. But how did this term spread? One of the members of the treasure hunters had a dad who managed the Grateful Dead’s real estate. One of the member’s brothers was good friends with Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh.
When a joint would go around they would say something along the lines of “Hey 420”. From there the beloved 420 spread. In 2003, when the California Legislature codified the medical marijuana law the voters had passed, the bill was named SB 420.
The truth hits hard
But we just had to puff-puff-pass it along.
But besides its origins is there a true 420 meanings. The marijuana culture stems back to raging at parliament hill with other pot enthusiasts to change the provisions of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and other legislation that banned the smoking of pot.
Even though it is now legal in Canada there is still plenty to fight for. Not as much as our southern neighbor’s ms. America, but there still is a cause. Besides the overall stigma surrounding those who are considered potheads, in the state’s marijuana, is still considered a schedule 1 drug putting it in the same category as heroin.
The 420 meaning can be perceived as much more as the right to fly high. There are proven health benefits to smoking pot that are being ignored less but are still being ignored. I am not saying that it has to be seen in the same light as Advil but there is still a hill to climb.
But…
The 420 meaning can mean different things to different people. It can mean empowerment against the government regime or it can man holy shit I like to smoke pot?
It doesn’t have to be deep but when it isn’t it is not perceived as the same. You are just a pothead where as in the 70s they were fighting for more than the right to smoke. It may be seen as independence, and with the evolution of technology and medicine, there is growth. There is growth with our understanding and our understanding of how THC and CBD affect us mentally as well as emotionally.
