Comments on: Origin of "420"

Question: Origin of "420"

goalyeehah — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 21:55:56 -0800

What is the origin of "420"

I was at a party last night and a topic of discussion moved to smoking pot. We were both wondering where did the term "420" come from. She heard that it meant 4:20PM was the best time to smoke. Any tokers on this one?

By: devilsbrigade

devilsbrigade — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 21:58:10 -0800

The story that I've heard as 'true' the most times is that a bunch of people who were the first ones to popularize it for college/etc got together at 4:20 to smoke, just because it fit in with their class schedules/etc. The one that's definitely not true is that its the Calif penal code for possession. You can look it up; definitely not there.

By: Miko

Miko — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 21:58:41 -0800

Snopes.

Wikipedia.

By: devilsbrigade

devilsbrigade — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 21:59:49 -0800

Snopes for the confirmation. I was a bit off.

By: mr.dan

mr.dan — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 22:00:37 -0800

Only one entity can fully answer the question.

By: grouse

grouse — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 01:43:53 -0800

Couldn't you have waited 25 minutes to post this question? Then it would have been 4:20 somewhere in the world?

By: mikel

mikel — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 04:10:04 -0800

Snopes is great, and so is Wikipedia.

But so is Ask Metafilter for answers to questions exactly like this one.

By: meehawl

meehawl — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 05:27:50 -0800

As an aside, my old boss went to San Rafael High in the 1970s and she says she never heard the term until recently.

By: zpousman

zpousman — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 06:39:33 -0800

meehawl, perhaps that's how she came to the boss man...

By: dhartung

dhartung — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 23:12:27 -0800

I never expected to be a folk etymologist -- because up until two months ago, I was a mute.

Er -- personally, the high-school pothead story sounds unbelievably lame. It doesn't seem like the kind of thing that would spread, but it is attested. *shrug*