# Significance of "420" ?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/significance-of-420/33609>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 18, 2000, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/significance-of-420/33609 "2000-09-18T15:41:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jrishaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5fc32e/32.png) [@jrishaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jrishaw)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/significance-of-420/33609/1 "2000-09-18T15:41:09Z")

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Funny that someone should post asking the significance of “666” because I specifically came here this morning to ask the significance of “420”.

What is it?

For those not “in the know,” “420” or “4:20” is, in the realm of those who recreationally enjoy marijuana, the time to “smoke up,” – but where did this number, or time, come from? What is its origin?

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**Author:** ![Gazoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ce73a5/32.png) [@Gazoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gazoo)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/significance-of-420/33609/2 "2000-09-18T15:50:49Z")

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Here’s a prior [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=15267) on the subject.

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**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/significance-of-420/33609/3 "2000-09-18T15:57:11Z")

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Recently, High Times ran an article on this. Unfortunately, I can’t find it. However, [this article](http://jambands.com/wwwboard/messages/776.html) briefly summarizes the origins of 420:

_According to Steven Hager, editor of High Times, the term 420 originated at San Rafael High School, in 1971, among a group of about a dozen pot-smoking wiseacres who called themselves the Waldos. The term 420 was shorthand for the time of day the group would meet, at the campus statue of Louis Pasteur, to smoke pot._

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**Author:** ![jrishaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5fc32e/32.png) [@jrishaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jrishaw)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/significance-of-420/33609/4 "2000-09-18T16:01:28Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Gazoo \*  
> \*\*Here’s a prior [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=15267) on the subject. \*\*

Thanks. I tried searching before posting (\*as I usually do) and came up empty.

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**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/significance-of-420/33609/5 "2000-09-18T22:08:26Z")

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Yeah, unfortunately, the search engine hates character strings less than four characters long. It also hates everthing besides letters. Thanks for giving a search a shot, though. I appreciate it.

**Gazoo** , great show finding that!