Curiosities: 420 why is the number of cannabis and what is the origin?

Curation Sechat with information from El Planteo

There are several legends that tell the origin of 420 as a representative number of cannabis. The date April 20 (4/20 in English) is when demonstrations take place in various countries to legalize the plant. The story that seems to have more evidence of the reason for this choice dates back to the city of San Rafael, California (USA), in 1971. There, a group of students began to gather next to a statue of Louis Pasteur, to share smoke every day at 4:20 in the afternoon.

Some versions of the story say that the boys picked the number after hearing that the local police used the code 420 to designate when someone was smoking in public. At least that's what an article in the High Times magazine from 1991 reported, the first publication to track the term. However, the local police denied the use of this code, which is not found in any police records.

In 1998, one of these legendary students contacted High Times to clarify the matter. Steve Capper told the magazine that he and his friends Dave Reddix, Jeffrey Noel, Larry Schwartz, and Mark Gravich used to hang out next to Pasteur's statue outside the school every day to smoke marijuana. Once, they got a map leading to an abandoned cannabis plantation and decided to meet at 4:20 pm, after school, to go to the hidden location and find what they hoped for.

That day, every time they crossed paths in the school hallways, they would say "420 Louis" to remember the location and time of the meeting. Although they never found the plants, 4:20 became the meeting time, and the number 420 turned into a kind of code to discuss marijuana in front of their parents without them noticing.

The boys became fans of a band called New Riders of the Purple Sage, which shared musicians with the Grateful Dead. The term 420 spread among the deadheads (the group's fans) and became commonly used at the shows.

Starting in 1991, High Times magazine began using the number more and more frequently in its articles, until it became a common language in the mouths of marijuana users worldwide. Today, 420 is internationally known to indicate that “marijuana is smoked here”, or that everything is legal with cannabis. The number has become a symbol of cannabis even in legislative circles, with US senators naming 420 for various official legalization proposals.