Colorado University 4/20 : CU 420---Every year on April 20, marijuana smokers light up on the University of Colorado campus in Boulder to celebrate "4/20" urban dictionary 420. But after a record number of smokers gathered 10,000 attend 4-20 CU for last year's event, university officials are looking to harsh the group's mellow by covering the school's quad with a certain stinky substance and threatening to ticket tokers.
But the Cheshire cat is out of the bag. Students and locals will show up at round four, light up at 4:20 and be gone shortly thereafter. No bands, no speakers, no chants. Just a bunch of people getting together and getting stoned.
The code often creeps into popular culture and mainstream settings. All of the clocks in Pulp Fiction, for instance, are set to 4:20. In 2003, when the California legislature codified the medical marijuana law voters had approved, the bill was named SB420.
"We think it was a staffer working for [lead Assembly sponsor Mark] Leno, but no one has ever fessed up," says Steph Sherer, head of Americans for Safe Access, which lobbied on behalf of the bill. California legislative staffers spoken to for this story say that the 420 designation remains a mystery, but that both Leno and the lead Senate sponsor, John Vasconcellos, are hip enough that they must have known what it meant. (If you were involved with SB420 and know the story, email me.)
The code pops up in Craig's List postings when fellow smokers search for "420 friendly" roommates. "It's just a vaguer way of saying it and it kind of makes it kind of cool," says Bloom. "Like, you know you're in the know, but that does show you how it's in the mainstream."
The Waldos do have proof, however, that they used the term in the early '70s in the form of an old 420 flag and numerous letters with 420 references and early '70s post marks. They also have a story.
It goes like this: One day in the Fall of 1971 - harvest time - the Waldos got word of a Coast Guard service member who could no longer tend his plot of marijuana plants near the Point Reyes Peninsula Coast Guard station. A treasure map in hand, the Waldos decided to pluck some of this free bud.
The Waldos were all athletes and agreed to meet at the statue of Loius Pasteur outside the school at 4:20, after practice, to begin the hunt.
"We would remind each other in the hallways we were supposed to meet up at 4:20. It originally started out 4:20-Louis and we eventually dropped the Louis," Waldo Steve explains.
The Wellcome Collection Museum presents High Society, open 11 November 2010 – 27 February 2011.
With the illicit drug trade estimated by the UN at $320 billion (£200bn) a year and new drugs constantly appearing on the streets and the internet, it can seem as if we are in the grip of an unprecedented level of addiction. Yet the use of psychoactive drugs is nothing new, and indeed our most familiar ones – alcohol, coffee and tobacco – have all been illegal in the past.Collective intoxication 4:20 Day at the University of Colorado Mark Leffingwell, photographic print, 2008. Courtesy of the artist
From ancient Egyptian poppy tinctures to Victorian cocaine eye drops, Native American peyote rites to the salons of the French Romantics, mind-altering drugs have a rich history. ‘High Society’ will explore the paths by which these drugs were first discovered – from apothecaries’ workshops to state-of-the-art laboratories – and how they came to be simultaneously fetishised and demonised in today’s culture.
‘High Society’ is supported by a diverse series of events. Invesitage the psychological perspective on drugs at a special Packed Lunch, enjoy ‘Kaffeine und Kuchen’ in the style of 18th-century Leipzig, explore the definition of a drug and more.
Packed Lunch: Drugs with Celia Morgan
1 December 2010, 13.00-13.45. What’s it like being a scientist with a licence to possess illegal drugs? Celia Morgan, a psychologist at UCL, works on cannabis and ketamine, conducting experiments on people who are high on their own supply to determine the effect of drugs on their cognitive function.
Describing the Drug Experience
2 December 2010, 19.00-20.30. Drugs that alter consciousness can only be fully described by human subjects – often reporting wildly different experiences. Can science make sense of these subjective experiences, or are they better conveyed by artists or writers?
Kaffeine und Kuchen
December 2010 and January 2011. Be transported to the coffee houses of 18th-century Leipzig in this immersive evening of music and mind-altering substances.
What is a Drug?
20 January 2011, 19.00-20.30. Mind-altering drugs are a universal habit, but an acquired taste: one culture’s religious sacrament is another’s public health problem. How did the contemporary category of ‘drug’ come into being, and how do attitudes differ across other times and places?
A number of CU students and employees have forwarded NORML the below email circulated on the campus regarding the state’s flagship university’s massive annual 4/20 protest, and the attempts this year by school officials to both 1) intimidate students from participating in the very popular political rally and 2) to try to tempt them from participating by instead attending a free concert by popular recording artist Wyclef Jean.*
Hard to know what would make for the richer irony here: No one attending Wyclef’s free concert or huge numbers of students attending the university’s alternative 4/20 activity and protesting with their cannabis use?*Is Wyclef and his fellow musicians actually playing for free, or, should CU students and the local media be asking questions of the CU administration on how much student tuition money is being used to thwart their first amendment activities with a supposedly ‘free’ concert?
Dear CU student:
As you know, your student government and the university administration would
like the disruptive, unnecessary and unsanctioned 4/20 gathering on the
CU-Boulder campus to end. With this in mind, please join us in taking key
steps this year to end 4/20.
We invite students who do not have Friday afternoon classes to attend the
free Wyclef Jean concert at the Coors Events Center, sponsored by CU Student
Government (CUSG) in partnership with Program Council.
The concert is for CU-Boulder students only. Doors open at 2 p.m. and will
close at 4 p.m. The concert is expected to end at 6 p.m. More information
on the concert will be e-mailed to students in coming weeks, so watch your
e-mail for upcoming announcements.
We also want to communicate some key changes and conditions that may impact
you or your peers on 4/20:
– Tickets will be issued for smoking marijuana on the Norlin Quad, or
anywhere on campus, prior to, during and after the gathering. Such tickets can
result in a $100 fine.
– Possession of a medical marijuana card does not entitle its holder to
smoke marijuana on campus, and in fact can result in revocation of the card.
– Alcohol policies will be strictly enforced throughout the campus.
– Students who receive tickets will be subject to a review process with the
Office of Student Conduct and if a student is found responsible, sanctions
will be issued. Additional sanctions will be levied by the Boulder County
and Boulder City courts.
– The federal Clery Act requires that the university maintain a publicly
accessible crime log. Those ticketed or arrested for violating CU rules
and state or local laws will have their names posted on the CU-Boulder
police website’s daily crime log, which could affect their employment futures.
– All classes and academic activities will go on as scheduled.
– Please do not invite friends or visitors to campus that day. Those not
affiliated with CU-Boulder are advised to avoid the campus entirely on 4/20.
– Plan ahead since extremely heavy traffic and long traffic jams are expected
on Broadway due to construction and along 28th Street due to overflow traffic.
University and City of Boulder guest parking will be virtually non-existent on
the CU-Boulder campus and in adjacent CU neighborhoods.
Please join the CU Student Government and the University in taking key steps
this year to end this disruptive, unsanctioned gathering on the CU-Boulder
campus. Your degree has value and your safety and your future matter to all
of us who are proud of the University of Colorado Boulder.
But the Cheshire cat is out of the bag. Students and locals will show up at round four, light up at 4:20 and be gone shortly thereafter. No bands, no speakers, no chants. Just a bunch of people getting together and getting stoned.
The code often creeps into popular culture and mainstream settings. All of the clocks in Pulp Fiction, for instance, are set to 4:20. In 2003, when the California legislature codified the medical marijuana law voters had approved, the bill was named SB420.
"We think it was a staffer working for [lead Assembly sponsor Mark] Leno, but no one has ever fessed up," says Steph Sherer, head of Americans for Safe Access, which lobbied on behalf of the bill. California legislative staffers spoken to for this story say that the 420 designation remains a mystery, but that both Leno and the lead Senate sponsor, John Vasconcellos, are hip enough that they must have known what it meant. (If you were involved with SB420 and know the story, email me.)
The code pops up in Craig's List postings when fellow smokers search for "420 friendly" roommates. "It's just a vaguer way of saying it and it kind of makes it kind of cool," says Bloom. "Like, you know you're in the know, but that does show you how it's in the mainstream."
The Waldos do have proof, however, that they used the term in the early '70s in the form of an old 420 flag and numerous letters with 420 references and early '70s post marks. They also have a story.
It goes like this: One day in the Fall of 1971 - harvest time - the Waldos got word of a Coast Guard service member who could no longer tend his plot of marijuana plants near the Point Reyes Peninsula Coast Guard station. A treasure map in hand, the Waldos decided to pluck some of this free bud.
The Waldos were all athletes and agreed to meet at the statue of Loius Pasteur outside the school at 4:20, after practice, to begin the hunt.
"We would remind each other in the hallways we were supposed to meet up at 4:20. It originally started out 4:20-Louis and we eventually dropped the Louis," Waldo Steve explains.
The Wellcome Collection Museum presents High Society, open 11 November 2010 – 27 February 2011.
With the illicit drug trade estimated by the UN at $320 billion (£200bn) a year and new drugs constantly appearing on the streets and the internet, it can seem as if we are in the grip of an unprecedented level of addiction. Yet the use of psychoactive drugs is nothing new, and indeed our most familiar ones – alcohol, coffee and tobacco – have all been illegal in the past.Collective intoxication 4:20 Day at the University of Colorado Mark Leffingwell, photographic print, 2008. Courtesy of the artist
From ancient Egyptian poppy tinctures to Victorian cocaine eye drops, Native American peyote rites to the salons of the French Romantics, mind-altering drugs have a rich history. ‘High Society’ will explore the paths by which these drugs were first discovered – from apothecaries’ workshops to state-of-the-art laboratories – and how they came to be simultaneously fetishised and demonised in today’s culture.
‘High Society’ is supported by a diverse series of events. Invesitage the psychological perspective on drugs at a special Packed Lunch, enjoy ‘Kaffeine und Kuchen’ in the style of 18th-century Leipzig, explore the definition of a drug and more.
Packed Lunch: Drugs with Celia Morgan
1 December 2010, 13.00-13.45. What’s it like being a scientist with a licence to possess illegal drugs? Celia Morgan, a psychologist at UCL, works on cannabis and ketamine, conducting experiments on people who are high on their own supply to determine the effect of drugs on their cognitive function.
Describing the Drug Experience
2 December 2010, 19.00-20.30. Drugs that alter consciousness can only be fully described by human subjects – often reporting wildly different experiences. Can science make sense of these subjective experiences, or are they better conveyed by artists or writers?
Kaffeine und Kuchen
December 2010 and January 2011. Be transported to the coffee houses of 18th-century Leipzig in this immersive evening of music and mind-altering substances.
What is a Drug?
20 January 2011, 19.00-20.30. Mind-altering drugs are a universal habit, but an acquired taste: one culture’s religious sacrament is another’s public health problem. How did the contemporary category of ‘drug’ come into being, and how do attitudes differ across other times and places?
A number of CU students and employees have forwarded NORML the below email circulated on the campus regarding the state’s flagship university’s massive annual 4/20 protest, and the attempts this year by school officials to both 1) intimidate students from participating in the very popular political rally and 2) to try to tempt them from participating by instead attending a free concert by popular recording artist Wyclef Jean.*
Hard to know what would make for the richer irony here: No one attending Wyclef’s free concert or huge numbers of students attending the university’s alternative 4/20 activity and protesting with their cannabis use?*Is Wyclef and his fellow musicians actually playing for free, or, should CU students and the local media be asking questions of the CU administration on how much student tuition money is being used to thwart their first amendment activities with a supposedly ‘free’ concert?
Dear CU student:
As you know, your student government and the university administration would
like the disruptive, unnecessary and unsanctioned 4/20 gathering on the
CU-Boulder campus to end. With this in mind, please join us in taking key
steps this year to end 4/20.
We invite students who do not have Friday afternoon classes to attend the
free Wyclef Jean concert at the Coors Events Center, sponsored by CU Student
Government (CUSG) in partnership with Program Council.
The concert is for CU-Boulder students only. Doors open at 2 p.m. and will
close at 4 p.m. The concert is expected to end at 6 p.m. More information
on the concert will be e-mailed to students in coming weeks, so watch your
e-mail for upcoming announcements.
We also want to communicate some key changes and conditions that may impact
you or your peers on 4/20:
– Tickets will be issued for smoking marijuana on the Norlin Quad, or
anywhere on campus, prior to, during and after the gathering. Such tickets can
result in a $100 fine.
– Possession of a medical marijuana card does not entitle its holder to
smoke marijuana on campus, and in fact can result in revocation of the card.
– Alcohol policies will be strictly enforced throughout the campus.
– Students who receive tickets will be subject to a review process with the
Office of Student Conduct and if a student is found responsible, sanctions
will be issued. Additional sanctions will be levied by the Boulder County
and Boulder City courts.
– The federal Clery Act requires that the university maintain a publicly
accessible crime log. Those ticketed or arrested for violating CU rules
and state or local laws will have their names posted on the CU-Boulder
police website’s daily crime log, which could affect their employment futures.
– All classes and academic activities will go on as scheduled.
– Please do not invite friends or visitors to campus that day. Those not
affiliated with CU-Boulder are advised to avoid the campus entirely on 4/20.
– Plan ahead since extremely heavy traffic and long traffic jams are expected
on Broadway due to construction and along 28th Street due to overflow traffic.
University and City of Boulder guest parking will be virtually non-existent on
the CU-Boulder campus and in adjacent CU neighborhoods.
Please join the CU Student Government and the University in taking key steps
this year to end this disruptive, unsanctioned gathering on the CU-Boulder
campus. Your degree has value and your safety and your future matter to all
of us who are proud of the University of Colorado Boulder.
