Everyone knows 4/20.
It shows up on calendars, in group chats, on menus, and pretty much anywhere cannabis is part of the conversation. Even people who don’t smoke recognize it.
But where it actually came from?
That part usually gets lost in bad guesses and recycled myths.
No, it’s not a police code.
No, it’s not tied to some hidden meaning in a song.
And no, it wasn’t designed to become what it is today.
It started with five high school kids… a map… and a time that just made sense.
1971: Five Friends and a Questionable Treasure Map
Back in 1971, a group of students at San Rafael High School in San Rafael, California, later known as the Waldos, heard about something worth checking out.
A friend’s brother had been growing cannabis out near Point Reyes. The problem? He didn’t want to be the one caught near it. So instead, he passed along a hand-drawn map and gave the group the green light to go find it.
That’s when things shifted from rumor to mission. The Waldos picked a daily meetup time: 4:20 PM.
Not because it meant anything, but because:
- Classes were done
- Practices had wrapped
- No one was expected home yet
It was just the easiest time to meet.
They’d link up near a statue of Louis Pasteur on campus, pile into a car, and head out on what they jokingly called “safaris.” The objective? Track down the hidden grow.
The outcome?
They never actually found it.
The Code That Outlived the Mission
Even though the search didn’t lead anywhere, the phrase did.
“420” became their shorthand.
At first, it was simple: “420?” = Are we doing this? But like most inside jokes, it didn’t stay static.
It slowly became less about the original plan…and more about the habit itself:
Showing up. Linking up. Doing something outside the normal routine. For a while, it stayed contained, just a local thing between friends. Until it spread.
How It Got Out
The shift happened through proximity. One of the Waldos had a connection to Phil Lesh, bassist for the Grateful Dead. That connection pulled “420” into a much bigger world.
From there:
- Crew members picked it up
- Fans (Deadheads) carried it with them
- The phrase moved from city to city
What started as a private code turned into shared language. Still underground, but no longer an inside phrase.
1990: When It Became a Date
Fast forward to December 28, 1990. In Oakland, a group of Deadheads started handing out flyers with a simple message:
Meet on April 20 at 4:20 PM.
No explanation. No campaign. No branding.
Just a time and a place, again. One of those flyers ended up with Steve Bloom, a writer and editor at High Times Magazine. That’s when everything changed.
Once it was published, the idea spread fast:
- “420” became widely recognized
- April 20 became the date
- The ritual became repeatable
By 1998, the Waldos were officially acknowledged as the origin. At that point, it didn’t belong to them anymore. It belonged to anyone who understood it.
The Myths (Still Floating Around)
There’s no shortage of theories about 420. Some say it was a police code.
Others tie it to historical figures or try to find meaning in music and math.
None of those explanations hold up.
Even High Times, which helped spread the term early on, eventually corrected the police code misconception from an early article they had written about the code.
The Reality
The real story isn’t complicated. A group of teenagers picked a time that worked, followed a map that didn’t, and kept the habit anyway.
That’s it. No master plan. No deeper meaning. Just something simple that people kept repeating…until it became part of the culture.