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What does 420 mean? A quick 420 definition

Posted on April 20, 2009

The number 420 is not just for telling time or a shorter way to write out April 20th. 420 happens to be a very sacred popular pot smoking phrase used in almost every marijuana, weed head, toke taker, bowl burner, bong sucker, joint roller, blunt smoker, grass growing, pot junkie… basically to all of the marijuana Smoking community.
There are many myths and legends about where exactly the 420 meaning originated from. We did some research and here is what We found (of course any true 420 single or couple would have heard of these theories already!) and for those who are still virgins to the single 420’s community Knock yourself out with these eye brow raising terms.

  1. The popular tale is that 420 is the police radio code or criminal code for someone holding or smoking grass.
  2. We actually didn’t find any truth to that tale but we did learn that California has two different 420 codes the first -California Penal Code 420 is a misdemeanor obstructing entry of public lands, and California Family Code 420 distinguishes A wedding ceremony.
  3. There are 420 active chemicals in the marijuana plant when in all actuality there are 315, and that number changes for different types of pot plants.
  4. Another theory is that tea time in Amsterdam is told to be at 4:20, when it’s actually at 5:30. Hmmm… way off.
  5. The most common is that 420 is a national cannabis holiday -April 20th is the National Pot Smokers Day. (Not an actual holiday to “regular” folk)
  6. 5. The infamous German ruler Adolph Hitler’s birthday falls on April 20th but in reality the number 420 started out as a time, not a date.
  7. 6. And the disturbing date of April 20th is the day of the Columbine school shootings, but again a magical number that was started in the 70’s, and was most likely created by peace, love, and harmony folk. So I don’t think that is where our three digit code came from.
  8. In all sense if you love smoking pot, rolling joints, hitting a bowl, or glue your face to a nice big water bong I’m sure no matter what the 420 community.

Back in 1990, I covered the Grateful Dead and Deadheads for High Times. At a New Year’s week show in Oakland, I received a flyer that talked about 420 – both smoking at 4:20 and celebrating as a group on 4/20. High Times published that flyer in the May 1991 issue. The author of the flyer contended that 420 was a police code for “marijuana smoking in progress.” For the next five years that was the accepted definition of 420.
Here’s what the flyer said:

“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! After a while something magical started to happen. People began getting stoned at 4:20 am and/or pm. There’s something fantastic about getting ripped at 4:20, when you know your brothers and sisters all over the country are lighting up and tokin’ up right along with you. Now there’s something even more grand than getting baked at 4:20. We’re talking about the day of celebration, the real time to get high, the grand master of all holidays: 4/20, or April 20th. This is when you must get the day off work or school. 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. Just go to downtown Mill Valley, find a stoner and ask where Bolinas Ridge is. If you make it to Marin you will definitely find it. Helpful Hints: Take extra care that nothing is going to go wrong within that minute. No heavy winds, no cops, no messed-up lighters. Get together with your friends and smoke pot hardcore.”
In 1998, a person calling himself Steve Waldo contacted High Times claiming he and five friends of his (”The Waldos”) had coined the term while they all attended San Rafael High School in Marin Country north of San Francisco in the early 1970s. He had proof (letters, posters, banners) that they had come up with the term. So High Times named the Waldos the founders of 420.
However, the Waldos hadn’t conceived the idea of a stoner holiday on 4/20. That came from the Deadheads and has taken on a life of its own over the years.

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