The traditional cannabis community holiday of 4/20 for me is about enjoyment and relaxation, community, freedom, and medicine.
Since cannabis has become legal, it has grown into a holiday like Thanksgiving or Memorial Day. These are times for a meaningful ritual along with creative marketing and sales.
You can get a good deal on a mattress or car and still appreciate veterans and the fallen on Memorial Day, even if you don’t go to a ceremony, for example. Plus, you can also have a good barbecue with family and friends.
Sometimes the meaning gets lost, and we search for it like in the Peanuts Charlie Brown Christmas special. So, it’s good to explore for a little bit what 4/20 means to me, at least.
Enjoying the Fun 4/20
4/20 is about feeling better and making the best of it with a little weed.
When you smoke weed, you should feel better fairly quickly after a few good puffs. The burdens of the world are lighter and more manageable. It is a time to be still and slow down the thoughts while relaxing. Life is funnier when you accept that there is something absurd about the nature of how it unfolds sometimes.
A million little things can pop up where it’s better to figure a compromise or let something go. It’s a lot easier to do that after smoking weed.
Community and 4/20
4/20 was in part popularized by former High Times Editor and Celeb Stoner Publisher Steve Bloom (featured on our Heady Chronicle podcast!) It started among early Grateful Deadheads at San Rafael High School in the Bay Area of California before the band became popular.
They met at 4:20 pm to go and smoke weed.
Weed has always been something that can break down the invisible barriers around oneself and others that make communicating feel difficult. Sharing weed is a great common ground across race and class lines in a way few others in life are.
4/20 Freedom and Justice
Prior to state cannabis legalization, 4/20 was a day to protest marijuana prohibition and the harsh tactics of the soldiers of the War on Drugs.
The medical cannabis advocacy group Sativa Cross often staged protests on the NJ State House lawn around their podcasts. With a legal permit, the protestors were allowed to hold the show, address the crowd and consume their medicine. As support for legalization grew, so did the crowds. By 2021, with adult-use cannabis legalization and decriminalization passed, it became more of a rally and a celebration versus an angry protest.
At the same time, with a robust legal cannabis market, the energy around 4/20 has grown and burst across the state and the weekend.
Sativa Cross remains among the leading advocates who are unhappy that there is no home gardening in the Garden State.
4/20 and Medicine
Cannabis is a great medicine for many patients with a range of conditions.
It personally helps me with digestion and anxiety issues. Many similarly get relief this way.
For many with Rick Simpson Oil (RSO), they are able to treat even worse illnesses often. Medical cannabis can be a great treatment for those dealing with severe pain and heroin withdrawal, for example.
