This year, 4/20, Marijuana culture’s high holiday, aligns with Easter. Here’s a look into the weed holiday’s history.
Marijuana culture’s high holiday, known as 4/20, falls this year on Easter Sunday, as well as the last day of Passover, meaning cannabis fans can celebrate in some unusual ways, including an “Easter nug hunt” in Los Angeles, kosher-style THC gummies in New York and a “blaze and praise” drag brunch in Portland, Oregon.
“It seemed appropriate with egg prices today that we’d be searching for something else,” said Brett Davis, who runs the marijuana tour company Weed Bus Los Angeles and organized the “Easter nug hunt.”
Here’s a look at 4/20’s history and how it’s being celebrated this year:
Why 4/20?
The origins of the date, and the term “420” generally, were long murky.
Some claimed it referred to a police code for marijuana possession or was derived from Bob Dylan’s “Rainy Day Women No. 12 & 35,” with its refrain of “Everybody must get stoned,” 420 being the product of 12 times 35.
But the prevailing explanation is that it started in the 1970s with a group of bell-bottomed buddies from San Rafael High School, in California’s Marin County north of San Francisco, who called themselves “the Waldos.”
A friend’s brother was afraid of getting busted for a patch of cannabis he was growing in the woods at nearby Point Reyes, so he drew a map and gave the teens permission to harvest the crop, the story goes.
During fall 1971, at 4:20 p.m., just after classes and football practice, the group would meet up at the school’s statue of chemist Louis Pasteur, smoke a joint and head out to search for the weed patch. They never did find it, but their private lexicon — “420 Louie” and later just “420” — would take on a life of its own.
The Waldos saved postmarked letters and other artifacts from the 1970s referencing “420,” which they now keep in a bank vault, and when the Oxford English Dictionary added the term in 2017, it cited some of those documents as the earliest recorded uses.
How did 4/20 spread?
A brother of one of the Waldos was a close friend of Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, as Lesh once confirmed in an interview with the Huffington Post, now HuffPost. The Waldos began hanging out in the band’s circle, and the slang term spread.
Fast-forward to the early 1990s: Steve Bloom, a reporter for the cannabis magazine High Times, was at a Dead show when he was handed a flyer urging people to “meet at 4:20 on 4/20 for 420-ing in Marin County at the Bolinas Ridge sunset spot on Mt. Tamalpais.” High Times published it.
“It’s a phenomenon,” one of the Waldos, Steve Capper, now 69, once told The Associated Press. “Most things die within a couple years, but this just goes on and on. It’s not like someday somebody’s going to say, ‘OK, Cannabis New Year’s is on June 23rd now.’”
While the Waldos came up with the term, the people who made the flier that was distributed at the Dead show — effectively turning 4/20 into a holiday — remain unknown.
How is it celebrated?
With weed, naturally.
In New York City, the cannabis brand Tokin’ Jew is advertising a kosher-style THC gummy line, “Tokin’ Chews,” designed to meet dietary restrictions for Passover.
Davis said he expected 300 people to partake in the West Hollywood Easter nug scavenger hunt this weekend, aided by a mobile app leading them through participating dispensaries, trivia challenges and “stoner activities.” There is a $500 cash prize.
In Portland, Bar Carlo is hosting the “blaze and praise” drag brunch. Cannabis consumption isn’t allowed onsite — “Please blaze before you arrive or go for a walk in the neighborhood in between performances,” the event listing reads — but there will be a door-prize gift basket from a local dispensary.
Bar owner Melinda Archuleta said the brunch is a dry run for hosting Pride month events in June. She herself doesn’t care much for marijuana, but as a Mexican American who has been influenced by Catholicism, she is interested in seeing the two cultures melded “in a cheeky way.”
“I’m really looking forward to seeing how the queens do it,” Archuleta said. “We’ve obviously given them carte blanche to do whatever they want — it’s 21 and up — so it doesn’t matter if it’s sacrilegious or borderline offensive.”
There are bigger celebrations, too, including the Mile High 420 Festival in Denver and one put on by SweetWater Brewing in Atlanta. Hippie Hill in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park historically has attracted massive crowds, but the gathering was canceled for a second straight year, with organizers citing a lack of financial sponsorship and city budget cuts.
Just north of the Bay Area, Lagunitas Brewing in Petaluma, California, releases its “Waldos’ Special Ale” every year on 4/20 in partnership with the term’s coiners.
4/20 also has become a big industry event, with vendors gathering to try each other’s wares.
What about the politics?
There are 24 states that allow recreational marijuana and 14 others allowing it for medical purposes. But the movement recently has suffered some setbacks, with voters in Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota deciding not to adopt legalization measures last November.
Several states also have cracked down on intoxicating products derived from hemp, which have been widely sold even in prohibition states thanks to a loophole in the federal Farm Bill.
Marijuana remains illegal under federal law. As a candidate, President Donald Trump said he would vote for Florida’s amendment and signaled support for reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug, a process started by the Biden administration.
But his administration has not indicated cannabis policy is a priority. A fact sheet released by the White House last month complained that marijuana decriminalization in Washington, D.C., was an example of “failed policies” that “opened the door to disorder.”
A bipartisan group of senators last week reintroduced legislation that would ensure states can adopt their own cannabis policies and remove certain financial hurdles for the industry, such as letting entities deduct business expenses on their taxes.
Charles Alovisetti, a lawyer with the cannabis industry law firm Vicente LLP, said he hopes the administration will push forward with marijuana reform at the federal level, saying “it does align with some of their policy objectives — namely reducing criminal activity, or cartel activity.”
He also encouraged advocates to keep pushing, noting some measures such as improving banking access for marijuana businesses might pass as part of larger legislative packages.
“You continue speaking up, even if the political momentum isn’t there,” Alovisetti said. “It’s only possible if you stay in everyone’s ear.”
