Indopedia All Things Marijuana
Having its own day is one of the defining components of a culture. The special day of cannabis lovers, April 20th, has evolved rather than being chosen. For many years, the origins of this nebulous festivity were little known and widely guessed at. So what does 420 represent?
If you’re a fan of cannabis, it’s likely that you will be familiar with its association with the number 420 (pronounced “four twenty”, never “four hundred and twenty”) and by extension the date April 20th, which in the US calendar is written 4/20. But why is this the magic number for cannabis users?
Theories are manifold: It’s Bob Marley’s birthday (no); it’s police code for cannabis smoking in progress (no); it’s from Bob Dylan’s ‘Rainy Day Women #12 & #35’, which contains the line ‘everybody must get stoned’, because 12 x 35 = 420 (a strange coincidence, but – no); it’s the number of chemical compounds in cannabis (no, but since we’re still discovering cannabinoids, who knows…); it’s tea-time in the Netherlands (that’s not even a thing. No). So where did the 420 tradition come from?
Origins of 420
In fact, 420 originated in 1971 when a group of school friends in San…
