4:20 what does it really mean

[I_am_the_way(HR]

i heard that 4:20 is when curt kobain died and everyone just forgot and says it is about pot. is this true???

[Grebdron]

I don't know about the Cobain thing. But 4:20 has always been about weed.

[The Postmaster General]

4:20 is suppose to be the time you smoke. It's like a joke holiday or something.


4/20 is also Hitler's birthday, and the day of the Columbine shootings. An interesting theory is that many stoners weren't shot because of the 4:20 rule.


Bumper Sticker: "It's 4:19. Got a minute?"

[Jason Voorhees]

Isn't it the California penal code for marijuana possession or something? I'm not sure...

[Morgana]

I was told what Bubba said...at 4:20 you're supposed to light up. Can't remember why at 4:20 though.

[FeverDog420]

http://www.snopes.com/language/graphics/420.jpg

Odd terms sneak into our language every now and then, and this is one of the oddest. Everyone who considers himself in the know about the drug subculture has heard that '420' has something to do with illegal drug use, but when you press them, they never seem to know why, or even what the term supposedly signifies.

It's both more and less than people make it out to be. '420' began its sub-rosa linguistic career in 1971 as a bit of slang casually used by a group of high school kids at San Rafael High School in California. '420' (always pronounced "four-twenty," never "four hundred and twenty") came to be an accepted part of the argot within that group of about a dozen pot smokers, beginning as a reminder of the time they planned to meet to light up, 4:20 p.m. Keep in mind this wasn't a general call to all dope smokers everywhere to toke up at twenty past four every day; it was twelve kids who'd made a date to meet near a certain statue. It's thus incorrect to deem that '420' originated as a national or international dope-smoking time, even though the term began as a reference to a particular time of day.

These days '420' is used as a generic way of declaring one likes to use marijuana or just as a term for the substance itself. Its earliest connotation of having to do with the time a certain group of students congregated to smoke wacky tobaccy is unknown to the overwhelming majority of those who now employ the term.

Spurious etymologies and uncertain definition aside, '420' has slipped into a position of semi-respectability within the English lexicon. Various free-wheeling cities annually celebrate "hemp fests" on April 20. There's a 4:20 record label in California, and a band called 4:20. Atlanta's Sweetwater Brewing Co. sells its 420 Pale Ale in supermarkets and opens its doors to the public at 4:20 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays. New York's 420 Tours sells low-cost travel packages to the Netherlands and Jamaica. Highway 420 Radio broadcasts "music for the chemically enhanced." And in 2001, the forReal.org web site of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Center for Substance Abuse Prevention put out a public service document titled, "It's 4:20 -- Do You Know Where Your Teen Is?"

420s are routinely slipped into popular movies and television shows. In Fast Times at Ridgemont High the score of the football game was 42-0. Most of the clocks in Pulp Fiction are set to 4:20 (but not all -- when the kid receives the watch it's set at 9:00). And there are many other instances, so keep your eyes peeled.

However, as amusing as it is to tie 420 to pot smoking and hunt for it in popular movies, the number has its dark side. Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, and the massacre of 13 victims at Columbine High School in Colorado took place on 20 April 1999.

[The Postmaster General]

check this out - I've never looked into the grass roots of this (heh), but here is some info.

http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread5469.shtml

[Big Pudge]

420 is the code for possesion of weed... just like 187 is the code for homicide!

[asyouwish530]

What FeverDog420 said :cool:

[The Postmaster General]

Originally posted by Big Pudge
420 is the code for possesion of weed... just like 187 is the code for homicide!

Yeah, but it's arguable that this is where it originated. Check the article I listed above.

[FeverDog420]

Originally posted by Big Pudge
420 is the code for possesion of weed... just like 187 is the code for homicide!

From the same site:

420 is the penal code section for marijuana use in California.

Nope. Section 420 of the California penal code refers to obstructing entry on public land. The penal codes of other states list different entries for 420, but none of them matches anything having to do with marijuana.

[The Postmaster General]

I always wondered if there was any connection to The Hitchiker's Guide The Galaxy



"The answer to the meaning of life is..... 42."

[arto_j]

Bubba...are you sure you know what the question here really is?

[The Postmaster General]

lol

Trully when I first learned of 4:20, and wondered about it - that book was the first thing that popped into my head because of the 42 thing. Heh - that was the only correlation I could find.


I do appreciate this credit, because in so many years I never researched why.


One thing I did see though - 4/20 is roughly considered the stoner's new year, for some reason - I guess it starts at 4:20


Best comment - A teacher was asking students what 4:20 means, and someone suggested that the class read High Times to research it.

[The Postmaster General]

Originally posted by I_am_the_way(HR
i heard that 4:20 is when curt kobain died and everyone just forgot and says it is about pot. is this true???

PS - Cobain dies on April 5th. The day after my birthday. My girlfriend had bought me a Nirvana music book that year for the b-day. It was messed up reading the lyrics that day.

[Invincible]

4/20

Hitler's Bday...

[The Postmaster General]

Originally posted by Invincible
4/20

Hitler's Bday...

But this IS NOT where it originated.

Imagine, if you must, a bunch of Grateful Dead fans on the lawn of UC saying, "Hey man, let's make Hitlers birthday a day to reveal in pot."

Sort of silly, huh?

[Invincible]

Not sure what you're gettin at there...4.20 is Hitler's BDAY. The guy was just asking what it means..oh well I don't know what you guys are talkin about anyways, all I know it's H's B-day :o

[The Postmaster General]

Originally posted by Invincible
Not sure what you're gettin at there...4.20 is Hitler's BDAY.



4:20 is a time, not a date.