How an after-school meeting time in 1971 San Rafael became the world's most recognizable cannabis code, spreading through Grateful Dead culture, High Times and decades of legalization activism.
So, Where Did 420 Come From?
Today, 420 is one of the most recognizable symbols in cannabis culture.
It represents a time, a date and an international celebration of the plant.
But its origins were much simpler.
The story begins in 1971, with five friends attending San Rafael High School in California.
They became known as the Waldos.
1971: The Waldos' Secret Code
The five teenagers were Steve, Dave, Jeff, Mark and Larry.
According to their account, they heard about an abandoned cannabis grow near Point Reyes.
The group decided to search for it.
They arranged to meet after school at 4:20 p.m., near a statue on campus.
To keep the plan discreet, they used the phrase "420 Louis."
The teenagers never found the reported cannabis crop.
But the meeting time remained part of their vocabulary.
Eventually, 420 became their general code for marijuana.
How Did 420 Reach the Grateful Dead?
The Waldos had connections to the Grateful Dead community.
Dave's brother worked for Phil Lesh, the band's bassist.
That relationship helped introduce the term into the band's wider social circle.
By the mid-1970s, the expression was reportedly circulating among Deadheads and people connected with the touring scene.
As the Grateful Dead traveled, the slang traveled with them.
An inside joke from San Rafael gradually entered a much larger counterculture network.
1991: High Times Takes 420 National
A major turning point came in 1991.
A flyer distributed around a Grateful Dead event in Oakland encouraged people to smoke cannabis at 4:20 on April 20.
High Times published the flyer, helping expose the phrase to a national audience.
The flyer also repeated an incorrect explanation that 420 was a police radio code for marijuana.
That myth spread alongside the number itself.
But the publicity helped establish 4:20 p.m. as a recognized smoking time and April 20 as a cannabis celebration.
The Myths That Wouldn't Die
As 420 became more famous, numerous explanations appeared.
Some people claimed the number came from California Penal Code 420.
Others connected it to police radio codes, Bob Dylan or Adolf Hitler's birthday.
Those explanations have not been substantiated as the origin of the cannabis term.
California Penal Code 420 concerns obstruction of public land, not marijuana.
The Bob Dylan theory relies on multiplying numbers associated with Rainy Day Women #12 & 35.
The connection to Hitler's birthday is simply a coincidence involving April 20.
The strongest documented origin remains the Waldos' 1971 meeting time.
How Did the Waldos Prove Their Story?
The Waldos preserved material associated with their early use of 420.
That included letters, maps and a 1971 yearbook page.
The records helped establish that the group had used the phrase decades before it became commercially widespread.
In 1998, High Times credited the Waldos with originating the term.
Their preserved documents became an important part of distinguishing the San Rafael account from competing explanations.
From Secret Code to Global Holiday
By the 2000s, April 20 had become a major gathering date in cannabis culture.
Celebrations and demonstrations appeared in locations including Denver's Civic Center, San Francisco's Hippie Hill and London's Hyde Park.
The date served several purposes.
For some participants, it was a celebration of cannabis.
For others, it was an opportunity to protest prohibition and demand reform.
As regulated cannabis markets expanded, April 20 also became an important commercial date for dispensaries and cannabis brands.
The original after-school code had become part holiday, part activism and part retail event.
California's Senate Bill 420
In 2003, California adopted Senate Bill 420, legislation addressing the implementation of the state's medical cannabis law.
The bill number became widely recognized as a reference to cannabis culture's familiar code.
By then, 420 had become so established that the number itself communicated an immediate association with marijuana.
Where Are the Waldos Now?
The five original Waldos followed different paths after high school.
Steve became one of the group's most visible public representatives and has been associated with the lending business in San Francisco.
Dave worked in film and became a retired CNN cameraman.
Jeff worked in the wine industry.
Larry has been connected with project management, while Mark became a photographer.
Their personal histories continued well beyond the joke that made their group internationally recognized.
The Waldos have also continued sharing their story through their public identity.
Legacy
420 began as an after-school meeting time for five teenagers searching for a cannabis crop they never found.
Through personal relationships, the Grateful Dead community and national coverage from High Times, the expression spread far beyond San Rafael.
Over the following decades, it became an international symbol of cannabis consumption, counterculture and legalization activism.
Its history also demonstrates how easily myths can grow around a familiar phrase.
The preserved evidence points back to Steve, Dave, Jeff, Mark and Larry in 1971.
What began as a private code between five friends became the date the cannabis world recognizes every year.
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Sources
1. Holland, Brynn. "The Hazy History of '420'." HISTORY, 19 Apr. 2017. https://www.history.com/articles/the-hazy-history-of-420
Supports: The five San Rafael teens and their "Waldos" nickname; the fall 1971 treasure map to a Coast Guard member's abandoned crop; meeting at 4:20 p.m. at the Louis Pasteur statue and searching Point Reyes; "4:20-Louis" being shortened to "420"; the Grateful Dead connections (Mark Gravitch's father managed the Dead's real estate; Dave Reddix's older brother was close to Phil Lesh and managed a Dead sideband); Steven Bloom receiving the flyer at a 1990 Oakland Dead concert and High Times launching the term globally; the Waldos' proof kept in a San Francisco bank vault (flag, clipping, postmarked letters); and California's 2003 medical marijuana bill being named SB 420. Also lists the rival myths the draft debunks (chemical count, Hitler's birthday, Dylan's "Rainy Day Women No. 12 & 35").
2. "The Long, Strange Hunt for 420." Boulder Weekly, 5 May 2016. https://archives.boulderweekly.com/features/cannabis-corner/the-long-strange-hunt-for-420/
Supports: Bloom getting the flyer in the Oakland Grateful Dead concert parking lot, the flyer's text (meeting at 4:20 on 4/20 in Marin County) and its false police-code explanation, and its publication in the May 1991 issue of High Times; the fact that no California police code 420 exists and that the term actually began in San Rafael in 1971; editor Steven Hager amplifying the term; the Waldos outing themselves to Hager in 1997; the 4:20 p.m. Pasteur statue meetups and "420 Louis"; the Dead ties via a Waldo's father and another's older brother's friendship with Phil Lesh; and the Waldos locating Coast Guardsman Gary Newman in 2016.
3. "The Battle Over 420's Origin Story." The Ringer, 20 Apr. 2017. https://www.theringer.com/2017/04/20/features/battle-over-420-san-rafael-waldos-bebes-4b755faa94a1
Supports: The Waldos' 4:20 p.m. rendezvous at the Louis Pasteur statue after practices; the role of Waldo Dave's older brother's Grateful Dead work in spreading the term; the disputed-claims history (the Bebes' rival account), which backs the draft's point that origin myths multiplied around the term; and the preserved evidence — the postmarked early-1970s letter, the June 7, 1974 San Rafael student newspaper clipping, and the tie-dye batik 420 flag kept in a Wells Fargo vault and cataloged at 420waldos.com.
4. "The Real 4/20 Origin Story: Five Teenagers, a Treasure Map, and the Grateful Dead." The Cannigma, 12 Apr. 2026. https://cannigma.com/history/real-420-origin-story-waldos-grateful-dead/
Supports: The five Waldos' full names (Steve Capper, Dave Reddix, Jeffrey Noel, Larry Schwartz, Mark Gravitch); Coast Guardsman Gary Newman's map and the Point Reyes patch never being found; the Dead inner-circle transmission of the term; the December 28, 1990 Oakland flyer and its May 1991 High Times publication; the myth-busting (no police code; California Penal Code 420 concerns obstructing entry on public land; the Dylan 12 × 35 coincidence); the Oxford English Dictionary citing the Waldos' vault documents when adding the term in 2017; protest roots of April 20 gatherings (Denver smoke-ins, Hippie Hill); and California Senate Bill 420 (2003).
5. California Legislative Information. "Senate Bill No. 420 — Chapter 875." California Legislative Information, approved 12 Oct. 2003. https://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/03-04/bill/sen/sb_0401-0450/sb_420_bill_20031012_chaptered.pdf
Supports: The draft's Senate Bill 420 claim — SB 420, authored by Senator Vasconcellos, was chaptered in 2003 and established the Medical Marijuana Program implementing California's medical cannabis law (the Compassionate Use Act of 1996).
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