Where Did “420” Come From?

Anyone the least bit familiar with the cannabis community knows that the number “420” has a special significance for tokers worldwide. It is our code, our handshake, our password to let others know we enjoy marijuana just like them. The term “420-friendly” in known across the globe to mean you’re down with Mary Jane.

April 20^th is the natural culmination of the stoner focus on “420.” It’s a day when the eyes of the world turn to us and our celebrations of an amazing, healing plant. Search engine traffic spikes and people who don’t care about our struggle for freedom the other 364 days a year take the day to give us a look. Many leave again after today, but each year more and more stay; even though they don’t partake, they see that we are not hurting anyone and that the lies used to keep cannabis illegal are just that: the lies of the “reefer madness” crowd who are losing their battle to keep prohibition intact.

But where did “420” come from? Before the rallies and the memes and the signs and the news stories there was the legend; the legend of The Waldos.

Over the years many groups have tried to claim they started “420.” But one group of guys has gone to great lengths to document their place in stoner lore as the true originators of the term. And most people in the cannabis community have come to accept the Waldos legend.

“In the fall of ’71 Waldo Steve was given a treasure map to a patch of weed on the Point Reyes Peninsula,” it reads on The Waldos website. “The map was given to him by a friend whose brother was in the U.S. Coast Guard and was growing cannabis. The coastguardsman was paranoid he would get busted so he granted permission to harvest. The Waldos™ all agreed to meet at 4:20 p.m. at the statue of chemist Louis Pasteur on the campus of San Rafael High. They met, got high, and drove out to search for the patch.

“In the ensuing school days the Waldos would use the term ‘420 Louie™’ to remind each other of their after school quest. They eventually dropped the ‘Louie’ part and just said ‘420’ to refer to cannabis. Originally ‘420’ was nothing more than the Waldos’ secret slang–their own private joke–, however, it was picked up by others and spread from generation to generation, city to city, country to country, across decades, and throughout all media around the globe.”

More than anyone, High Times Magazine was responsible for spreading the term and making it synonymous with the stoner culture, something they have been doing since the early 1990s.

Every year 4/20 gets bigger and every year it shows the growth of a massive community that fights every day just to be left alone. For us “420” is more than code for “let’s get high;” it is a term that says “we aren’t infringing on your rights so don’t infringe on ours.”

Happy 4/20!