No one at High Times had ever heard of 420 until yours truly brought back a flyer to the New York office after attending a Grateful Dead show on Dec. 28, 1990, at the Oakland Coliseum.
While walking around the parking lot with some friends, we ran into a Deadhead handing out a flyer printed on an 8 x 11 sheet of green paper. The flyer was typewritten with handwritten scrawls in the margin that read:
420 started in San Rafael, CA in the late ‘70s. It started as the police code for Marijuana Smoking in Progress. After local heads heard of the police call, they started using the expression 420 when referring to herb—‘Let’s Go 420, dude!’ After a while something magical started to happen. People began getting stoned at 4:20 am and/or pm. There’s something fantastic about getting ripped at 4:20, when you know your brothers and sisters all over the country and even the planet are lighting up and tokin’ up right along with you.
Now there’s something even grander than getting baked at 4:20. We’re talking about the day of celebration, the real time to get high, the grand master of all holidays: 4/20, or April 20th. This is when you must get the day off work or school. We are going to meet at 4:20 on 4/20 for 420-ing in Marin County at the Bolinas Ridge sunset spot on Mt. Tamalpais. Just go to downtown Mill Valley, find a stoner and ask where Bolinas Ridge is. If you make it to Marin, you will definitely find it.
HELPFUL HINTS: Take extra care that nothing is going to go wrong within that minute. No heavy winds, no cops, no messed-up lighters. Get together with your friends and smoke pot hardcore.
The handwritten statements included “Smoke Pot at 4:20,” “Legalize It!” and “George Is the Only Illegal Bush.”
We published the flyer’s text in the May 1991 issue when I was still news editor at High Times. The magazine adopted 420 principles, which mostly involved having sessions at and around 4:20. We would leave the office on 4/20 to have smoke-outs in a nearby park. Cannabis Action Network (CAN), based in Berkeley, did the same and eventually started producing 4/20 events at the Maritime Hall in San Francisco. Other events took place on college campuses in Boulder, CO and Santa Cruz, CA.
Soon after, I met a group of guys calling themselves The Waldos at the 1997 CAN event. They disputed the flyer, saying they invented 420! Their proof included posters, banners, and letters with 420 references. The Waldos said they’d smoke at 4:20 in the early ‘70s when they attended San Rafael High School in Northern California’s Marin County. Despite others who made similar claims, High Times hailed The Waldos as the founders of 420. That’s the story that is now regularly told during the yearly 420 news cycle in April. The media usually recounts my flyer story and The Waldos’ claim.
It’s hard to know what’s true about 420 history. To me, it was a big game of stoner telephone that played out in the Bay Area, resulting in this increasingly popular phenomenon and celebration. Rather than credit one person or a group, I prefer to acknowledge the broader community that gave rise to 420.
While The Waldos continue to receive credit for the concept, the 4/20 events that take place annually are due to the flyer and not The Waldos. It clearly calls for a day of celebration that has now expanded into multiple days of events, depending on when 4/20 falls. Major concerts, festivals, and sundry events take place on 4/20, making it the official stoner holiday. 7/10 is another effort to band stoners together on one day.
4/20 has also become the biggest cannabis retail day of the year. According to Headset, “4/20 in 2025 was a uniquely nuanced event. Falling on a Sunday—and coinciding with Easter—the holiday evolved into more of a three-day sales opportunity. While 4/20 and Easter Sunday won’t align again until 2088, 2025 offered valuable lessons for the future.”
“Oregon, which posted a 165% increase in sales on the holiday, also recorded one of the largest relative jumps in average discount. This bold departure from typical retailer offerings clearly captured customers’ attention and helped fuel the surge in sales.”
So, make sure to take advantage of deals during the 4/20 holiday and stock up for the rest of the month, May and beyond. It’s all because of a little flyer, a bunch of stoners and the general belief that cannabis deserves its own holiday.
Steve Bloom is a former editor of High Times and current publisher of CelebStoner.com. Join his group at Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/celebstoner)
