As Hager explained, a group of Californian teenagers ritualistically smoked marijuana every day at 4:20 pm. The ritual spread, and soon 420 became code for smoking marijuana. Eventually 420 was converted into 4/20 for calendar purposes, and the day of celebration was born.
Where did the day 420 come from?
According to Chris Conrad, curator of the Oaksterdam Cannabis Museum in Oakland, California, 420 started as a secret code among high schoolers in the early 1970s. A group of friends at San Rafael High School in Marin County, California, who called themselves “the Waldos,” would often meet at 4:20 p.m. to get high.
What is special about April 20th?
According to TIME Magazine, some say “420” is code among police officers for “marijuana smoking in progress,” while some note that 4/20 is also Adolf Hitlers’s birthday, and others tie the date to Bob Dylan’s song “Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35” because 12 multiplied by 35 is equal to 420.
