Cultural Codes

Belief systems and praxes

1937: Despite being relatively innocuous and used by only a small portion of the population, marihuana is effectively prohibited by the Marihuana Tax Act.

Prohibition requires a perverse public pedagogy.

1960’s: After more than twenty-five years of criminal prohibition, marijuana use became popularized through the 1960's, with 250,000 first-time users in 1964 and growing to more than 2 million first-time users in 1969.

By the time we got to Woodstock, close to 10 million people had used marijuana for the first time, in the 1960’s.

1970: The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) is founded in DC. It becomes the marijuana consumers' lobby and advocates for legalization, a struggle that has lasted over 55 years.

1974: Marijuana and cocaine smuggler Tom Forcade starts publishing High Times a magazine that focused on recreational "soft" drug use.

The High Times “Top 40” marijuana strains of 1977.

1975: A clique of high school students in the Bay Area create a code for planning after-school bone cruises — "4:20, Louis Pasteur."

The Louis Pasteur statue on the campus of San Rafael (CA) High School, where the Waldos would meet at 4:20.

1990: In the lot at a Grateful Dead show High Times writer Steve Bloom comes across a flier meant to teach people about 4:20 as a time to use marijuana. He informs the readership. The flier also encourages readers to join NORML.

The Original 4:20 flier that was handed to Steve Bloom. “Support NORML” added to the message shows the relevance of reform activism to marijuana culture.

2000s: The subcultural knowledge of 4:20 becomes ensconced, references to it begin to appear outside of popular marijuana culture. Public celebrations on 4/20 at 4:20 begin. The 2018 observance on Boston Common in the video below.

2025: The economic impact of the 4:20 concept is easily in the tens of millions of dollars on April 20 alone in the United States. It is universally recognized by the licensed cannabis industry, as well as by increasing numbers of elected officials, though it is not an official holiday.

Despite marijuana remaining illegal in many states and federally prohibited, 4:20 is celebrated in all states, across the country, and around the English-speaking, cannabis-using world.

To borrow from legalization advocate Dr. Margaret Mead: Never doubt the power of a small group of people to assemble a code system to communicate about their marginalized practices, and watch that code system become a global phenomenon.

That is what happened with Christianity, and that is what is happening now.

Please celebrate this Global Day of Resistance to Cannabis Prohibition responsibly.

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