Today is 420, what does 420 even mean?

This article was originally published on the Marijuana Patients Organization site on April 20, 2015.

Most of us understand the meaning behind Christmas and MLK day, but for marijuana users today is a holy day and nobody is quite sure of its history. Does any one know what the meaning of 420 is?

The origins of 420 are kind of a mystery and the internet can sometimes provide too much information.

Theory 1 from Urban Dictionary

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, who are now in their 60’s. The term was shorthand for the time of day the group would meet, at the campus statue of Louis Pasteur, to smoke pot. Intent on developing their own discreet language, they made 420 code for a time to get high, and its use spread among members of an entire generation.

The Dead Theory from Huffington Post

It was Christmas week in Oakland, 1990. Steven Bloom was wandering through The Lot – that timeless gathering of hippies that springs up in the parking lot before every Grateful Dead concert – when a Deadhead handed him a yellow flyer.

“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,” reads the message, which Bloom dug up and forwarded to the Huffington Post. Bloom, then a reporter for High Times magazine and now the publisher of CelebStoner.com and co-author of Pot Culture, had never heard of “420-ing” before.

The flyer came complete with a 420 back story: “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 Police Call Theory

Some state that 420 is an actual police call for Marijuana Smoking in Progress.