4/20’s long, strange trip to pot holiday began in San Rafael, California
AP – By Paul Elias – April 18, 2018
420 Dude – Did you know the term #420 started in a California high school? Dude.
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (AP) — Friday is April 20, or 4/20. That’s the numerical code for marijuana’s high holiday, a homage to pot’s enduring appeal and universal slang for smoking.
Festivities are planned worldwide, culminating with a synchronized smoke at 4:20 p.m.
How the marijuana-loving world came to mark the occasion is believed traceable to five Northern California men now in their 60s with bad backs and graying hair. They are the unofficial grandmasters by virtue of the code they created nearly 50 years ago as students at a suburban San Francisco high school in 1971.
They didn’t find the patch that day, but vowed to keep searching. They would pass in the halls and whisper “420 Louis” to each other if a new attempt was planned, indicating they should meet at 4:20 p.m. at the Pasteur statue.
The patch was never found.
“We were probably too stoned,” Schwartz said.
But the “420 Louis” stuck as code for “let’s get high at the statue after school.” Soon after, it was shortened to simply 420 and meant “let’s get high anywhere.”
PS Also today on April 20th there are gatherings all over the world where people meet to smoke Marijuana.
Posted by Teri Perticone
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