What time is it? 420

Just as “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere” has become the cultural code phrase for alcohol enthusiasts to justify tossing back an early cocktail, the term “420” has become a not-very-secret phrase in the cannabis community to fire one up. Why users are encouraged to partake every April 20th or perhaps indulge in a daily late-afternoon toke has become the subject of considerable debate, along with extensive discussions over where the term originated. Speculation has only grown as the marijuana movement has progressed into the mainstream over the past couple of decades. Ask any veteran in the marijuana movement about the meaning of 420 and it will likely elicit a shrug of the shoulders, or perhaps some version of a rumor they’ve read or heard over the years. “To tell you the truth, I didn’t even hear the term 420 until about four years ago,” said Spokane-area marijuana activist Rick Misterly, who has been part of the marijuana counter-culture for more than 50 years. “I Googled it and I saw it was used by some high schoolers in northern California as a time they would all meet up and smoke marijuana.” He’s actually correct, but the story of how the term became mainstream is much more interesting. A Google search for “420” brings up 840 million search results, and a plethora of published and discussed theories and all sorts of rumors tied to 420. Michael Goldstein, of LA Weekly, did a story in 2013 debunking a whole list of rumors associated with 420 ranging from a celebration of Bob Marley’s death to a complicated theory that the number was inspired by Bob Dylan lyrics. Goldstein and a handful of other journalists have concluded that the most credible theories point to a group of San Rafael High School students who coined the time-related term while planning to hunt for an elusive patch of abandoned weed in 1971. The students were known as the Waldos because they hung out at a wall on the high school campus. According to their own website, 420Waldos.com, “The Waldos never purposely tried to insert 420 into culture, yet despite all the modern hoopla about it, it was never anything more than a private Waldo joke.” The Waldos have been dubbed “The Beatles of 420,” however, they still remain under the radar in much of society. But they have granted some rare interviews to publications such as High Times, which ironically played a role in both perpetuating rumors and eventually bringing the term into mainstream marijuana culture. While the Waldos did not respond to a request for an interview from Spokannabist, their well-documented website is a trove of evidence that substantiates their claim to have coined the term. As the story goes, a handful of friends and high school classmates got their hands on a crude map that led to a patch of weed cultivated by a U.S. Coast Guard lighthouse keeper, who became paranoid after planting it on federal property and abandoned it. The Waldos hatched a plan to go and harvest the weed, requiring them to meet up by a statue of Louis Pasteur on campus after sports practice – the time: 4:20 p.m. While the Waldos never found the weed, they had grown accustomed to using the term 420 in weed-related conversations so it started catching on and spreading among fellow students. Coincidently, the Grateful Dead rock band was moving into Marin County, Calif., during that time and one of the Waldos’ father became the band’s real estate agent. Some of the Waldos became close with band members and worked shows with them or housesat for while they toured. During a 2009 interview with Huffington Post, “Waldo Steve,” as he was identified in the story, said the Waldos would hang out and smoke pot in the Dead’s recording studio, and soon many of the band members and backstage crews were using the term 420. Fast forward to 1990 when High Times Reporter Steven Bloom was attending a Grateful Dead show in Oakland, Calif. A Deadhead handed him a flyer, according to the Post article. The flyer said: “We are going to meet at 4:20 on 4/20 for 420-ing in Marin County at the Bolinas Ridge sunset spot on Mt. Tamalpais,” according to the Post article. Bloom told the Post he had never heard of 420-ing. The flyer came complete with a 420 back story, so he decided to publish it: “420 started somewhere in San Rafael, California, in the late ‘70s. It started as the police code for Marijuana Smoking in Progress. After local heads heard of the police call, they started using the expression 420 when referring to herb - Let’s Go 420, dude!” The Waldos’ website points out that particular time was when the misinformation began, and by 1998 all kinds of false info was being linked to 420. In fact, High Times magazine liked the term so much it purchased 420.com and started using 420 as a branding slogan at many events. “I started incorporating it into everything we were doing,” High Times editor Steve Hager told the Huffington Post. “I started doing all these big events - the World Hemp Expo Extravaganza and the Cannabis Cup - and we built everything around 420. The publicity that High Times gave it is what made it an international thing. Until then, it was relatively confined to the Grateful Dead subculture. But we blew it out into an international phenomenon.” According to the Waldos’ website, members finally decided to come forward to High Times and set the record straight. High Times corrected the record with a special 420 edition of its magazine in 1998 in a story titled “The Riddle of 4:20.” Today the term has evolved to what High Times calls “the stoner’s day to celebrate.” “Although the number holds no significance for the straight world, stoners have universally embraced it to the point that April 20th has become our New Year celebration,” wrote Editor-in-Chief Steven Hager in the first 420 edition of the magazine.