Many people have misconceptions about how the number 420 is used in cannabis culture.

Some people claim the California police department utilised it as a dispatch code for marijuana smoking. This theory can be rejected as urban myth because there is no 420 code specified in the California Penal Code, where the dispatch codes are obtained.

According to reports, code 420 was created in 1971 by kids from San Rafael, California. Because they opted to hang out on a wall outside their school, the gang mentioned above was dubbed “The Waldos.” The name 420 is thought to have been coined by the group when they learnt about an abandoned cannabis crop nearby and devised a plan to gather every day to locate it. The gang had decided to meet every day at 4:20 pm and had chosen the Louis Pasteur statue as their meeting spot. To keep their plot from being discovered, they employed the code “4:20 Louis,” later abbreviated to “4:20.” The abbreviation 4:20 or 420 became a signal for teenagers discussing marijuana use in general.

The word 420 has grown in popularity among cannabis users to the point of mythology. An editor for High Times, Steven Hager, authored an article titled “Are You Stoner Smart or Stoner Stupid?” on one such evolution. The article discussed two distinct cannabis groups: “Stoner Smart” and “Stoner Stupid,” where Stoner Smart referred to someone who uses cannabis as a creative tool to enhance their life, and Stoner Stupid referred to those who get up in the morning and their first thought is getting high and will think nothing of smoking their entire supply or a friend’s stash without a second thought to later.

In the article, a question was made regarding what 420 means. The assumption was that if a cannabis smoker waited until 4:20 pm before starting to smoke, they would experience a better high than others who get out of bed start smoking cannabis right away.

The day of April 20th (4 20) has evolved into a counterculture holiday in North America, with pot smokers gathering to celebrate and consume cannabis throughout the United States and beyond. Such gatherings have taken place in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and on university campuses across the country. In New Zealand, these events were also held in Daktory and Dunedin. The fact is that 420 in cannabis culture signifies very different things to different groups, whether it’s used as a code by teens who like getting together to smoke a joint or by groups formed to fight for cannabis legalisation