The City of Trees has always had a bit of a double entendre for Sacramento. As the nation’s third-best city for stoners, Sacramentans + cannabis have always been buds.
So on this dankest of days, we thought we’d share a little history lesson on the origins of cannabis culture’s most highly regarded number: 420.
Let’s clear up some common misconceptions right off the bat — the fabled number’s origins are not a reference to a state penal code, a Bob Dylan song, or the number of active chemicals in cannabis. Its start is in fact much simpler.
In 1971, a group of five friends calling themselves “the Waldos” would meet at 4:20 p.m. every day next to a statue at nearby San Rafael High School to — you guessed it — spark up some of that sticky icky. Legend has it the group would meet because its members had come into possession of a map that lead to an abandoned pot farm near Point Reyes. According to the story, the search for the mythical marijuana — always after a few puffs of their own — was unsuccessful.
Later, one of the Waldos went on to work for the Grateful Dead — one of the most far out bands of the era — as a roadie, and it’s believed the “420” term began to spread around this time.
In 1991, High Times — a cannabis culture magazine — published a Grateful Dead flyer that invited people to “smoke 420 on April 20 at 4:20 p.m.” Reporter Steve Bloom says it’s this flyer that inspired people all over the world to collectively blaze up in celebration.
As usage of the word began to spread throughout the early 90s, the Waldos contacted High Times in 1998 to air out their story and cement their stoner celebrity status for all time.
