For those of us in the cannabis community, April 20th, or 4/20 is a day of cannabis celebration and advocacy. But where did it start? What are the roots? And why the term, 4/20?

Let’s look closer.

History of 4/20

It’s believed that back in the early 1970’s, a small group of high school students in San Rafael, California started the long-running tradition. They called themselves The Waldos, as they would originally meet by a wall outside of school. Towards the end of 1971, the group learned of a Coast Guard member that was growing cannabis. Unable to care for it any longer, some say he provided the group a ‘treasure map’ to its location. The group would then meet at the Louis Pasteur statue outside of their school weekly to search for the abandoned crop. (Fun fact: Pasteur actually created the first pasteurization test on April 20th, 1862.) One of the original members of The Waldos, Steve Capper, told the Huffington Post, “It originally started out 4:20-Louis, and we eventually dropped the Louis.” The group would meet up, drive to the nearby Point Reyes Forest, and scour it over the next few months. Though they would never find the free bud, they did create one of the most well-known terms for all cannabis consumers.

4/20 Gains Popularity

The term 420 was largely popularized by the Grateful Dead. Members of The Waldos, and more specifically their families, helped to influence the Dead. In the same interview with the Huffington Post, Capper said “There was a place called Winterland, and we’d always be backstage running around or on stage and, of course, we’re using those phrases. When somebody passes a joint or something, ‘Hey, 420.’ So it started spreading through that community.” When “Waldo” Reddix became a roadie for the group, he designated 4:20 as the “socially accepted hour to consume cannabis”. As it spread, 420 began to show up across the country and in all forms of popular media: movies, television, and music. 420 and it’s related Cannabis themes have long been used to describe cannabis smokers. Steven Hager, an editor at the popular magazine, High Times, popularized the 4/20 holiday’s origins in May 1991. First writing about the San Rafael group in 1998, he too attributed the rise of 420’s notoriety to Grateful Dead followers. Another editor at High Times, Steven Bloom, sent over a flyer he found outside of Winterland in 1991 to the Huffington Post. Originally passed out at a New Year’s Grateful Dead show, the flyer was one of the first pieces of print media to use the term ‘420’ to describe pot smokers and the April holiday.

The term has made well past the holiday. In 2003, California Senate Bill 420 was introduced to regulate medical marijuana, in a deliberate reference to the popular cannabis holiday. This bill regulated California’s long-lasting medical marijuana program, which was initially passed as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, or California Prop 215: the first medical marijuana legislation to ever pass in the United States.

Current Day 4/20

For some people, 4/20 is a celebration and an excuse to get extremely high. For others, it’s a day to push for legalization, patient rights, and honor all that the plant has to give. Celebrations held on 4/20 are almost always highlight the current legalities of Cannabis and advocate for easier, widespread access for patients and recreational consumers, alike. One of the founders for Seattle’s Hempfest, Vivian McPeak, calls 4/20 “half celebration and half call to action.”However you choose to celebrate 4/20, one thing’s for certain: year after year, more and more people are gaining access to cannabis in the United States, and that’s not turning back.