Paul M Peterson

Fungible Oddities
April 20, 2008 was an absurd day for me. The nazi pope concluded his North American Tour. Homeland security busted a young man for recieving ten gallons of ammonium nitrate. It was Hitler’s birthday. It was also the anniversary of the Columbine high school shootings and it was also 4/20, the international Marijuana Smokers Holiday.

The Saga of 420
The number 420 is significant. In case you have been living under a rock, 420 (pronounced four-twenty) is slang for getting stoned. It stems from a group of teenagers –called the “waldos”–at San Rafael High School (which is only a couple of miles from where I work), in San Rafael, Ca in 1971. These stoners would meet behind the bleachers at 4:20 to get high. Thus, 420 became the watchword and counter sign for stoners at this school to let each other know it was time to toke. They began saluting each other with “420, louie”. Later, in the eighties, The Grateful Dead popularized the term at their concerts.

Enter “The Man”
Despite 80 years of negative propaganda, whether it be in film (“Reefer Madness”), books, school (the DARE program), and TV (remember the “this is your brain on drugs” commercials?), the consumption of Marijuana has become culturally normalized. People saw through the bullshit.

The Waldos Strike Back!
Today, potheads around the world gathered to celebrate cannabis sativa and protest it’s legal status. According the chicago tribune, 420 is becoming a highly commercialized illegal holiday. A webcast TV show, three documentaries, several concerts and stand up comedy events were publicized using 420 as the release date. 420 parties are popping up all over in several major cities, including Chicago.

Search the internet with the term 420 and you get links to over 400,000 sites, many of them hawking products suited to a cannabinoid lifestyle. There is even a 420 magazine. And an online directory called 420 Pot. Even the authorities have taken notice: the white house wrote a piece of propaganda that warns concerned parents that 420 “is not just a ordinary date”. It all stems from the habit of cannaphiles worldwide to show their solidarity on this day.

Personally, I think 4:19 PM is a perfectly good time to get high.

Sources: Wiki
Chicago Tribune

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