# Origin of the term “four-twenty”? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 4, 2003, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-four-twenty/205548 "2003-10-04T15:00:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/97f17d/32.png) [@Tross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tross)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2003, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-four-twenty/205548/1 "2003-10-04T15:00:23Z")
Origin of the term “four-twenty”? I had not heard it till I moved from D.C. to California where it’s used as code for smoking marijuana. 4:20 in the afternoon is understood to be a good time to smoke a bowl. I climbed a landmark tree on the University of California at Santa Cruz Campus, and found a receipt from a drugstore impaled on a twig on one of the uppermost branches. It looked completely unremarkable to me but I imagined there must be something of significance about it that I was missing. I mentioned it to one of my fellow climbers and he pointed out that the due amount was $4.20. Apparently this is a magic number. I have been told its use spans the country and that companies have incorporated it into their names, so I was a bit surprised when I did a search for it here in the SD and turned up no hits. As its connotative use relates to smoking pot, I imagine it will be a challenge to pin down it’s original denotative use but perhaps someone will at least get close. Here is what the marijuana afficionado magazine High Times has to say about it: [http://www.hightimes.com/htsite/lounge/content.php?page=lounge\_02080718&tpage=1&cmnt=&PHPSESSID=5d8f7c776a279f11db1bcd1041a6fd9d](http://www.hightimes.com/htsite/lounge/content.php?page=lounge_02080718&tpage=1&cmnt=&PHPSESSID=5d8f7c776a279f11db1bcd1041a6fd9d) ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2003, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-four-twenty/205548/2 "2003-10-04T15:07:14Z")
You’ve asked a question, and you’ve linked to about as good an answer to that question as you could possibly expect. What do you want here? ---
**Author:** ![Tross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/97f17d/32.png) [@Tross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tross)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2003, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-four-twenty/205548/3 "2003-10-04T15:15:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Desmostylus \* > \*\*You’ve asked a question, and you’ve linked to about as good an answer to that question as you could possibly expect. > > What do you want here? \*\* The straight dope. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2003, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-four-twenty/205548/4 "2003-10-04T15:25:38Z")
Snopes: [420](http://www.snopes.com/language/stories/420.htm) Plus, you can search the archives on this board for the previous times this question has been asked. ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2003, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-four-twenty/205548/5 "2003-10-04T15:35:07Z")
[Here is one such very recent thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=188511&highlight=marijuana) ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2003, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-four-twenty/205548/6 "2003-10-04T18:50:09Z")
420 = number of times per month this question gets posted here. ---
**Author:** ![Tross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/97f17d/32.png) [@Tross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tross)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2003, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-four-twenty/205548/7 "2003-10-04T22:21:33Z")
I want to thank you smart fellows for your help. It was most white of you. God as my witness, I did a few searches and turned up nothing, as it’s possible you may have guessed from reading my post. Terribly sorry if I have made you fritter away a portion of your life on my thoughtless and inconsiderate query. Rest assured I will try hard not to ask anymore foolish or imperfectly researched questions, from this point on. Peace out, Tross ---
**Author:** ![culov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@culov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/culov)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-four-twenty/205548/8 "2003-10-05T01:47:35Z")
By the way, how do you like UC Santa Cruz? Its one of the schools im considering…