A group of people in
San Rafael, California,
[2][3] calling themselves the Waldos
[4] because "their chosen hang-out spot was a wall outside the school",
[5] used the term in connection with a fall 1971 plan to search for an abandoned cannabis crop that they had learned about.
[4][6] The Waldos designated the
Louis Pasteur statue on the grounds of
San Rafael High School as their meeting place, and 4:20 p.m. as their meeting time.
[5] The Waldos referred to this plan with the phrase "4:20 Louis". Several failed attempts to find the crop eventually shortened their phrase to simply "4:20", which ultimately evolved into a codeword that the teens used to mean marijuana-smoking in general.
[6] Mike Edison says that
Steven Hager of
High Times was responsible for taking the story about the Waldos to "mind-boggling, cult-like extremes" and "suppressing" all other stories about the origin of the term.
[7]Hager wrote "Stoner Smart or Stoner Stupid?" in which he called for 4:20 p.m. to be the socially accepted hour of the day to consume cannabis.
[8] He attributes the early spread of the phrase to
Grateful Dead followers, who were also linked to the city of San Rafael.
[8]