April 20 is World Marijuana Day. But this date is not chosen randomly and behind 4/20 hides a history of youth struggle against clandestinity.
Who started with 4:20?
The first group that used this concept called themselves Waldos and were a group of teenagers from California (United States) who, in the seventies, stayed at 16:20 when they left class to smoke marijuana. One of the curiosities of the story is that the 4:20 was chosen because the classes ended at 3:00 and the punishments and / or extracurricular activities at 4:20.
Everyone knew that at that time it was forbidden and, precisely for that reason, they started using the code 4:20 to refer to the act of smoking cannabis without having to be so explicit. Soon after, on April 20, on the 4/20 American calendar, it became World Cannabis Day in honor of the California Waldos. Those guys who started raising their heads and stopped hiding to consume marijuana in the seventies.
False myths
It is false that 4:20 is the tea time in the Nordic countries, where people end the workday and take a break with their best marijuana.
Others said that the active chemicals in marijuana are 420 and that’s where the name came from. This is also totally uncertain, since there are around 315 active and although this number varies depending on what species of plant is used, it never reaches 420.
Those guys, who are now all over 50 years old, started a soft and silent struggle and, without being very aware of it, they gave one of the first shots of exit to the normalization of cannabis.
VIA cactusmartorell