four-twenty

[Alice Faber]

>I have heard that _four-twenty_ (4:20) is a pot-smokers' code-word
>for "It's time to smoke a joint."  Has anyone else heard this, and
>does anyone know where it comes from?

There was a long thread on this on the alt.folklore.urban newsgroup within
the past 6 months to a year. I wasn't paying serious attention to it, but
recall some speculation about police radio codes.

Ah...Deja-news came up with the start of that thread; another thread that
came up when I searched with keywords "4:20 pot" came up with a marvellous
just-so story from April 1999 involving mad scientists measuring rate of
THC uptake, an unnamed university in California, and a digital clock.

>420 = Stoned
>Author: R H Draney <dadoctah at earthlink.net>
>Date: 1999/06/09
>Forum: alt.folklore.urban
>
>For anybody keeping track of vectors, the new (July 1999)
>issue of Playboy arrived yesterday, and three people felt
>compelled to write in explaining the derivation of the
>number 420 meaning marijuana or other reality-impairment....
>
>Nobody should be a bit surprised that all three explanations
>are different, although I'd never heard the "sitcom on
>Indian TV" version before....r

Alice Faber