How pot holiday 4/20 got its start with 5 California high school stoners

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (AP) — Friday is April 20, or 4/20. That's the numerical code for marijuana's high holiday, a celebration and homage to pot's enduring and universal slang for smoking.

Festivities are planned worldwide, culminating with a synchronized smoke at 4:20 p.m. local time.

How the marijuana-loving world came to mark the occasion is believed traceable to five Northern California men now in their 60s with bad backs and graying hair. They are the unofficial grandmasters by virtue of the code they created nearly 50 years ago as students at a suburban San Francisco high school in 1971.

"We thought it was a joke then," said David Reddix, a filmmaker and retired CNN cameraman. "We still do."

Read more: https://napavalleyregister.com/news/national/how-pot-holiday-got-its-start-with-california-high-school/article_bc1c1739-51ac-5c5d-aa55-be8796863c75.html


In this Friday, April 13, 2018, photo, Waldos Dave Reddix, left, and Steve Capper look over a 420 flag from 1972 made by a classmate that is kept at a bank vault in San Francisco. Friday is April 20, or 4/20. That’s the numerical code for marijuana’s high holiday, a celebration and homage to pot’s enduring and universal slang for smoking. And five Northern California high school stoner buddies widely credited with creating the shorthand slang for getting high nearly 50 years ago now serve as the day's unofficial grand masters. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)


In this Friday, April 13, 2018, photo, the Waldos, from left, Mark Gravitch, Larry Schwartz, Dave Reddix, Steve Capper and Jeffrey Noel pose below a statue of Louis Pasteur at San Rafael High School in San Rafael, Calif. Friday is April 20, or 4/20. That’s the numerical code for marijuana’s high holiday, a celebration and homage to pot’s enduring and universal slang for smoking. And the five Northern California high school stoner buddies widely credited with creating the shorthand slang for getting high nearly 50 years ago now serve as the day's unofficial grand masters. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)