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"What is April 20th or
"420"?
Ask teenagers at Sunrise Mall
in Citrus Heights what "420" is, and the typical response
is evasive. "Uh, I don't know what that is," a number
of teens who were hanging out at the mall said Friday night.
"I don't know what you're talking about," others said,
blushing. According to www.420.com, "420," pronounced
"four-twenty," is a special date (April 20) and time
of day for marijuana smokers to light up. The Web site says that
420 was a California tradition in the 1970s that became a nationwide
ritual, a lingo and a holiday for cannabis smokers.
The origination of the term has been attributed to the police
radio code for marijuana smoking in progress, the California
penal code section for marijuana use, the day Jim Morrison of
the rock group The Doors died and the number of chemicals in
marijuana.
None are true, according to an article by the San Francisco Chronicle
that was posted on the Cannabis News Web site last year.
The most popular myth is that 420 is a police radio code, but
that is indicative of teens' desire to believe what they want
to believe, said Jon Daily MSW, CADC, a counselor with New Directions
Counseling Associates in Fair Oaks, CA (916-966-4523).
"The kids really believe the origin is this police code,"
Daily said. "Kids don't know what the effects of drugs are
going to be either, but someone can tell them it will do certain
things and they'll believe it."
Daily and other counselors say April 20 is a problem. Chemically
dependent teenagers celebrate the day like a real holiday, Daily
said, and schools are likely to see a long list of absences.
"April 20 means a time to get high," Daily said. "For
chemically dependent kids, 420 happens every day. Parents and
teachers have been in the dark.
Kids aren't going to go to school that day. They're going to
go get high." California penal code 420 refers to obstructing
entry on public land. No police radio code for the Citrus Heights
Police Department or the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department
includes a 420 code, said Lt. Jim Bell of the Citrus Heights
Police Department.
Jim Morrison died July 3,
1971, and according to High Times, a drug culture magazine, marijuana
has 315 chemical compounds.
Steven Hager, editor of High Times, said the term originated
in 1971 at San Rafael High School. A group of about a dozen pot-smoking
students who called themselves the Waldos used the term as the
time of day they would meet to light up at a statue of Louis
Pasteur on campus.
"Waldo Steve," a former group member who owns a business
in San Francisco, told High Times that the Waldos would salute
each other in the school hallway and say, "420, Louis!"
"It was a joke, but it came to mean all kinds of things,
like, 'Do you have any?' or 'Do I look stoned?' " he said.
"Parents and teachers wouldn't know what we were talking
about."
But, as more teens started to talk about it, parents, teachers
and school administrators began to catch on.
The San Juan Unified School District has taken measures to educate parents, teachers and principals about the date.
"The rumors (that some students are planning
to skip school April 20) prompted our biggest push," said
Joe Tucker, coordinator of attendance improvement with the school
district. "A letter has gone out to administrators and parents
making them aware of the issues that surround the date."
Students are expected to be in school that day, he said, and
off-campus hangouts will be monitored.
"We're putting out a notice to kids, 'You're expected to
be at school,' " Tucker said. "Law enforcement is aware
of (the significance of the date),
as well as the school. If they're caught skipping school, depending
on where they are and how many 'cuts' they have, it does pose
a risk to the kids.
"If it's their first time ever, it would be just a Saturday
school (punishment), but if they're habitually truant, it can
mean they lose their driver's license or go to juvenile court."
Plenty of companies make money on the term. It can be found on
stickers, patches, T-shirts and baseball caps. Clerks at Evangeline's
in Old Sacramento say they can't keep some of the items on the
shelves.
"We have a calling list for some of the T-shirts," said clerk Jennea Morris. "We can't keep them on the shelf." The 420 items have been popular for quite some time, said assistant manager Rob Teresi. He said the items sell well year-round, not just near April 20. "It's been selling good for three or four years," Teresi said. This article appeared in the Sacramento Bee last april and was written by Marsha Hart.
Effective April 1st Drug Detection Labs will no longer be testing for LSD in the regular $40.00 full panel drug screen. The LSD test will be an additional test charge of $35.00