420 Jive

Factual Questions
1

Dear People -

Longtime fan of Cecil am I, and pleased as punch (how pleased IS that??) to discover this site, as my pathetic local paper bumped the master's column long ago in favor of more ad space.

So - my question has to do with the mythos behind the recent obsession with 420 by stoners here in California. I gave up the stuff a number of years ago, but always thought myself "in with the in crowd" - so this lack has made me age considerably in a short time. My own research brought me to this website - [http://www.420.com/origin/recognition.tpl](http://www.420.com/origin/recognition.tpl)

  • which in the manner of true stoners, manages to be all over the place on the topic; disputing all of the definitions previously presented, coming up with nothing, and ultimately retiring to the bong.

    Any elucidation from the master or his tribe? Thanks.

eyemkent

2

I don’t know what you mean by recent. I was a freshman in college 6 years ago, and we regularly observed 4:20.

April 20th was always our favorite day, and this past year I remember right after we all got stoned at 4:20 on 4/20, me and my friends turned on the TV and first heard about the Columbine shootings. 4/20 will never be the same.

It’s such a fine line between stupid and clever.

3

420 was/is San Francisco’s police code for “people getting baked” and passed into the vernacular after the Haight/Ashbury days. San Rafael (as mentioned in the article) is too small to have that kind of cultural influence.