420: Culture and urban legends...

On April 20th, 2006, I posted a similar version of what follows to my Tribe blog just before switching over to Vox as my primary blog platform.  "Four Twenty" as it's pronounced by those in the marijuana culture is the social equivalent of a holiday and some of these folks even stop whatever day dreaming pot smokers do daily at 4:20PM to take time out to smoke pot, not that regular pot smokers need an excuse to smoke.

At the time I posted it, I was hoping to present to all pot smokers, or former 420 freaks, several reasons why this practice seems kind of silly.  I've come to realize however that this is a fruitless endeavor.  Don't get me wrong though.  The Bay Area loves its marijuana and I'm not personally anti-marijuana per se.  I just don't think it does much good for people in the long run.  Medical marijuana use is great for those with terminal illnesses but I've seen lots of people fool themselves into believing that they're not addicted to smoking pot, or that it's not adversely effecting their lives.  When you can't go out to a party or a club because you've gotta go score from your dealer so you can get high before you can be seen in public or feel comfortable, something's just not right.

I don't smoke pot myself but I do think that most drugs including Cannabis should be legalized so that the drugs can be regulated by the state and federal governments.  People should be appropriately punished for harm or injury that is caused by their negligence when intoxicated by a controlled substance but make the drugs themselves legal and maybe you cut out the allure of that particular substance.  Telling people they can't have something leads to people wanting it, especially when it's narcotics, and there are those individuals who profit from the illegal sale of various illegal substances and these folks typically aren't the nicest sort of people.  Shady business ensues. 

Here's the updated version of my 2006 post about "four-twenty" day:

Cannabis-culture enthusiasts everywhere typically celebrate today's date [April 20th or "Four-twenty"] and especially celebrate by smoking pot at 4:20PM today for some unknown reason. All of this occurs allegedly because of some kids at a San Rafael High School [The Waldos?], according to Snopes.com, High Times magazine, the Marijuana-logues The Straight Dope and Wikipedia.org's Cannabis culture page, that would meet at 4:20PM to smoke Cannabis or "pot" with their friends.

Prior to the internet and all things networking, lots of urban legends about the number and its use in marijuana culture traversed and traveled through the Cannabis culture grapevine [the stemline?] and these false stories have been passed around for generations by Cannabis culture enthusiasts.  The most famous legend about this special, dare I say "magic" number is the story about the police code for "pot smoking in progress" being represented by the number 420 in Oregon or Washginton state is my personal favorite [you know, like 187 is a code for homicide?].  The wikipedia page used to have more urban legends outlined on the page but I noticed most of them have been removed after reviewing the page this year.

- Here's the updated wikipedia.org link that outlines the agreed upon origin of the expression of this particular date as a special day in Cannabis culture.

* It's interesting to note that editing of the Cannabis culture wikipedia page by new members has been disabled.  Too many kids dying to add their $.02 to the wiki page I guess.

- There's also a couple of infamous events that occurred on this date including the Columbine High School massacre, the downing of a Korean Air passenger plane by the Soviets and the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars.

- There are also some famous and infamous births that occurred on this day; most notably in the negative column for an overwhelming majority of folks being the birth of Adolph Hitler in 1889.  Thanks a lot for that one oh Great Architect of the Universe!

The neutrality of the text on the Hitler page, at the time I originally posted a link to it on my Tribe blog last year, was in dispute but the page seems to have settled down since then. It's really too bad that Hitler didn't get into art school. Who knows what would've happened with the world had he gotten in.

- A well-known prophet named Muhammed, the founder of Islam, was born on this day in 570 too

- Here's a short list of noteworthy 4/20 birthdays with their birth and death year, where appropriate:

Adolf Hitler 1889-1945 [huge asshole]
Muhammed 570-632 [prophet]
Napoleon 1808-1873 [guy who liked to stick his hand in his shirt]
Tito Puente 1925-2000 [percussionist]
George Takei 1940 [Star Trek, Heroes actor]
Ryan O'Neal 1941 [actor]
Edie Sedgwick 1943-1971 [cousin of Kyra, Factory Girl, Warhol film actress]
Jessica Lange 1949 [academy award-winning actress]
Crispin Glover 1964 [actor, writer, hipster]
Luther Vandross 1951-2005 [singer]
Don Mattingly 1961 [baseball player]

- The link to the complete April 20th birthday list on Wikipedia

- And finally, the link to the number 420 itself on Wikipedia, mostly mathematic information about the number four-hundred and twenty

Puff.. Puff... Give...  Don't mess up the rotation!