Rumors about how "420"–the popular code term for smoking marijuana–was first coined are numerous. Some say it's the active chemicals in the drug. Others that it's teatime in Holland. Or something to do with Hitler's birthday. Perhaps those numbers in that Bob Dylan song multiplied.
But, according to the Huffington Post, the term was first uttered in San Rafael in 1971 by a groung of five students nicknamed the Waldos – due to the group's chosen hangout spot of a wall outside the school.
As the story goes, a Coast Guard service member was unable to tend his pot plants near the Point Reyes Peninisula Coast Gaurd station and the Waldos wanted to hunt for a free supply.
They met at Louis Pasture outside school at 4:20 p.m for several weeks to go search. And eventually, "420" became their code word.
"I could say to one of my friends, I'd go, '420,' and it was telepathic. He would know if I was saying, 'Hey, do you wanna go smoke some?' Or, 'Do you have any?' Or, 'Are you stoned right now?' It was kind of telepathic just from the way you said it," Waldo Steve Capper says. "Our teachers didn't know what we were talking about. Our parents didn't know what we were talking about."
Eventually, the Grateful Dead spread the word from Marin and beyond.
Corte Madera Town Councilwoman Alexandra Cock has stated that there has been no serious criminal activity associated with the one dispensary in town.
Larkspur recently extended its moratorium against marijuana dispensaries in town.
