Happy 4/20! Let's take a look at where we are, and where we're going

It’s 4/20, that solemn stoner holiday when we wake, perhaps bake, look back at how far we’ve come, and take the time to remember why the oven is on and there’s a sheet of raw snickerdoodles in the dryer.

We all celebrate 4/20 differently—some prefer not to celebrate it at all for some weird reason—but if you’re a fan of America’s fave Schedule 1 controlled substance, you’ve likely been looking forward to this seemingly arbitrary date for weeks. Or days. Or since you clicked on this story and suddenly realized you have a semi-legitimate excuse for day-toking on a Saturday.

So where did this highest of holy days come from, and when exactly will all Americans be allowed to celebrate it without fear of government reprisals?

RELATED STORY: How 4/20 became marijuana’s high holiday

Here’s one likely explanation for the holiday’s origins—and all the cheeky references to the number itself—from Fortune magazine? (Boy, we really have come far, haven’t we?)

[T]he prevailing explanation is that it started in the 1970s with a group of bell-bottomed buddies from San Rafael High School, in California’s Marin County north of San Francisco, who called themselves “the Waldos.” A friend’s brother was afraid of getting busted for a patch of cannabis he was growing in the woods at nearby Point Reyes, so he drew a map and gave the teens permission to harvest the crop, the story goes.

During fall 1971, at 4:20 p.m., just after classes and football practice, the group would meet up at the school’s statue of chemist Louis Pasteur, smoke a joint and head out to search for the weed patch. They never did find it, but their private lexicon — “420 Louie” and later just “420” — would take on a life of its own.

The Waldos saved postmarked letters and other artifacts from the 1970s referencing “420,” which they now keep in a bank vault, and when the Oxford English Dictionary added the term in 2017, it cited some of those documents as the earliest recorded uses.

We’ve seen sea changes in public attitudes toward weed since the seeds of 4/20 were first planted in 1971. And those changes have largely been reflected in our laws—though, frankly, it’s taken rather long for the law to catch up with the zeitgeist.

For the past 55 years, Gallup has been asking Americans whether pot should be legal, and despite a minor dip during the Drug War-addled ‘80s, support for weed legalization has steadily increased, from 12% in 1969 to a bloodshot-eye-popping 70% in 2023.

Unsurprisingly, as attitudes have shifted, so have our punitive approaches to pot use. In 1971, when the Waldos were first getting pasteurized in the weed patch, cannabis was illegal everywhere in the U.S. Now, recreational use is legal in 23 states, two U.S. territories, and Washington, D.C., and medicinal use is licit in 37 states.

While some cannabis advocates—and fair-minded folks in general—had hoped the drug would have already been removed from its federal Schedule 1 classification, which implies weed is as dangerous and medically useless as heroin, that hasn’t happened yet. But the Biden administration has been working diligently on rescheduling, and it’s currently in the pipeline. 

In a briefing on Monday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre noted that the Department of Health and Human Services had completed its review, “guided by the evidence,” and “the scheduling review is now with the DOJ.” 

That said, President Joe Biden, who was first elected to the Senate in 1972 when cannabis-friendly laws were typically nonstarters, has taken steps toward legalization and decriminalization that would have painted him as a radical hippie decades ago. But cannabis advocates have been keen to nudge him even further along.

The Hill:

The Biden administration has opened several avenues for marijuana reform including issuing federal pardons for simple possession and starting the process of potentially rescheduling marijuana’s status under the Controlled Substances Act from Schedule I to Schedule III.

But those measures have failed to excite advocates, who say Biden is falling short of his 2020 campaign promises and failing to address the disparate overcriminalization of the drug that has unduly impacted minority communities.

Progressive lawmakers in the Senate are urging the administration to go further and completely deschedule the drug, which would effectively decriminalize it at the federal level, as opposed to rescheduling it, which would reduce penalties and restrictions.

“Marijuana’s placement in the [Controlled Substances Act] has had a devastating impact on our communities and is increasingly out of step with state law and public opinion,” 12 Democratic lawmakers wrote to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) last month.

Descheduling, as opposed to rescheduling, cannabis at the federal level would be a welcome step, but in defense of Biden, who’s mostly lent a sympathetic ear—if not a full-throated voice—to the movement, he’s been continuing the forward momentum we’ve seen for years now. And he has a willing partner in Vice President Kamala Harris, who recently said of rescheduling that the DOJ needs to “get to it as quickly as possible.”

“This issue is stark when one considers the fact that on the schedule currently, marijuana is considered as dangerous as heroin,” she added. “Marijuana is considered as dangerous as heroin and more dangerous than fentanyl. Which is absurd. Not to mention patently unfair.”

It’s particularly absurd considering that most potential U.S. pot smokers are now protected under their state laws. Depending on where you live, you’ve either entered a brave new world of legal pot or remain trapped—temporarily, anyway—in a benighted anti-weed redoubt. According to The Washington Post, a majority of Americans—roughly 54%—now live in areas where weed is legal.

In other words, we’ve come a long way, baby. 

How far? As recently as the mid-‘90s, cannabis was still illegal everywhere in the U.S. In 1996, California became the first state to legalize weed for medical purposes, and throughout the 2000s, several states—from reliably blue strongholds like Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii to red states like Alaska and Montana—followed suit. In 2012, Colorado famously became the first U.S. state to fully legalize, and the dominoes (and Domino’s pizzas) have been falling ever since.

Even as the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act languishes in the U.S. House, legalization could go forward in several states in 2024—most notably in Florida, a presidential battleground state that legalized medical use in 2016 and whose supreme court recently green-lit a November ballot referendum to make weed recreationally legal. 

The pro-pot Cannabis Business Times has also assessed the chances for legalization in several other areas, putting states as politically diverse as Wisconsin, Hawaii, Idaho, South Dakota, New Hampshire, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania on the list of potential legal states.

So if you’re among the new majority of Americans who are legally allowed to enjoy this ancient medicine, feel free to toke up. It’s 4/20, after all. Meet you out by the stone(r) statue. Or at the local dispensary.

I would’ve been there to greet you much earlier ... but I got high. 

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