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Greetings to all:
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<br>Though this indicates a degree of familiarity with street-level argot
that's more self-incriminating than I like, here goes... time was, you
(er, um, that is to say, one) might buy a 1/4th oz. bag of "mota" for $20,
the slang code for its purchase being a sidelong, "got any 4:20 (or 4:20s)?"
as in, "do you sell quarter-ounce bags of marijuana for $20?" Bearing
in mind that this was the kerbside cost back in 1980, the fact that it's
now become 5:20 in Seattle comes as no surprise ... and they say we have
no inflation! ... bah! Now, as far as "tagging" (grafitti) goes,
I've been reliably informed by Latino gang members (specifically by Salvadorean
and Mexican rivals in Mission district [San Francisco, CA] adolescent and
adult street drug gangs,) that "5:20" has a local significance far beyond
that of pushing dope, as a graphic form of accusation or threat to rival
gangs on the border between each gangs' turf, to ensure proper respect
by one toward the other, and vice versa; or, when applied internally, as
a charge against a "compa" who has been found (or is suspected to be) an
informant who is "snitching" to police, or is passing on privileged information
of any sort made in confidence to other gangbangbers (serving the same
function as "Big Character" posters did in Mao's Cultural Revolution, as
a means for exposing traitors of all kinds.)
<p>"5:20's" significance stems from the relevant verse in Deuteronomy which
reads: "Neither must you testify to a falsehood against your fellowman*"
in a restatement of the commandment first revealed in Exodus 20:16 (*as
rendered on pg. 244 of the "New World Bible.")
<p>Sorry to expound at such length here, guys, but the persistence of a
literary tradition regardless, and almost in defiance of, its original
context, never ceases to amaze me. This latterday form of ostrakon devised
by kids with spray cans in the ghettoes of the world's last superpower
speaks to the enduring power of (a) Scripture, in the most "secular" environment
imaginable, in spite of every tendency militating against its survival,
encysted in the very heart of today's global Cyber Beast, and shows how
pervasive the influence of an almost entirely oral mode of cultural transmission
remains, even at the dawn of an Internet-mediated E-eon (OK, sorry, bad
pun, but I couldn't resist!) Point taken all the same anyway,
right? - Joseph
<p>Bapopik@AOL.COM wrote: "The Dictionary of Street Drug Slang Terms is
at www.drugs.indiana.edu/slang/home.html. [It] ... has over 3,000 terms
(without etymologies) Four-twenty is marijuana. - Twenty-five is LSD."
--- P.S., I believe "25" was the number used by researchers at Sandoz Pharmaceutical's
labs to identify the trial analgesic they were compounding, impressed on
the tablets in the same way as "404" was used for the same reason with
Rorer Co.'s quaaludes (methaqualone,) but this may well be apochryphal.
I've also heard it was considered to be the lowest effective dosage (in
pure micrograms) for adult users by Albert Hoffman, its inventor, who found
from an unwelcome personal experience that 100 mgs. was "disorienting,"and
exceeded a patient's compliance threshold for regular use to a considerable
extent, so they settled on 25 mgs. as a well tolerated while therapeutically
effective cure for migraine headaches. The lore around LSD is so
"psychedlic" as to defy any degree of credibility in most cases (including
the foregoing as well, for all I know,) but if any you <u>do</u>, please
let me/us know. It'd be a pity if the lexicon of drug culture relied
on anecdotal evidence and definitions alone. - But I'm done now, I promise.
- Regards, Joseph
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