four-twenty (and five twenty)

[Joseph Carson]

Greetings to all:

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.)

"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.")

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

Bapopik at 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 do, 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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