So it's April 20th, also known as 4/20, also known as time to get high. Yes, this day's date is both the hour to toke and our favorite code word for smoking marijuana and talking about it in front of oblivious squares. It's also Adolph Hitler's birthday, but that's neither here nor there. Many casual weed users use the date as an excuse to smoke their drug of choice, while more committed users try as often as they can to smoke when the clock, rather than the calendar, hits 4:20.
Our dear Dartmouth is no stranger to 420 celebrations, with more than a few student organizations throwing parties or organizing events to celebrate this date with the traditional activities.
But where did this 4/20 thing start anyway? Many people like to think that it was originally the police radio code for marijuana usage ("All units respond to a 420"), which was then co-opted by the ever-ironic drug users as a title for their favorite pastime. While cool, this explanation is untrue; 420 doesn't stand for anything in police radio code. The best explanation that can be found (conveniently on Wikipedia) dates back to the early '70s, when a group of high school students in San Rafael, Calif. would meet every day after school at an assigned spot at 4:20 pm to smoke together.
In the late '70s a comic book series called "420" featured a hero named Captain Cannabis. That was the first documented appearance of the term and since then, 420 has gone on to achieve nation-wide fame, often referenced in movies, songs, literature, pop culture, counterculture and whatnot. It has even become the name for a marijuana legalization campaign advocated by the "High Times" magazine. The campaign calls for marijuana aficionados to devote the 20th of April to advocating various drug-legalization agendas. While this sounds like an interesting alternative, it seems that people currently stick to more traditional, and markedly less productive, ways of celebrating 420.
